Are We Friends Yet?
by Lorca the Great
Summary: Being stuck in community college sucks. Roxas just so happens to find something to keep him there for a while yet. And it all started with a freaking cold. AkuRoku. Some Zemyx. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Sheesh. After being obsessed over AkuRoku fanfictions for the past who knows how many months, it's about time that I wrote my own. I actually was hit with the plot brick when I saw this one cute little underclassman at my school… well… blowing his nose into a crumpled up tissue. And, being me, my brain was automatically redirected to Roxas. Then Axel shoved his way in. And, thus, the idea was born.

**Pairing(s): **AkuRoku. That's a given. Dunno if I'll put in some other stuff. I might.

**Disclaimer:** Ohh, never had to write one of these before… Erm. I claim no ownership of these sexy devils… erm. Something like that.

**Warnings:** Some swearing and guy on guy stuff. Obviously.

**Other junk: **This is dedicated to anyone who has been/is/will be sick and needs an Axel.

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**Are We Friends Yet?**

**Chapter 1**

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_It started with a cold._

_A harmless little cold._

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There is something about college freshman with wild blond hair and a petite stature blowing their nose into a rumpled tissue as they pass by in the hallway. Said miserable blond passed by a certain perky, outgoing redhead, who just so happened to notice how miserable he looked.

But let's start at the beginning.

Roxas: eighteen years old and a college freshman at TTCC, or Twilight Town Community College for those not familiar with the snazzy acronym. It was halfway through his second semester at TTCC and, frankly, those honors classes he took in high school were far harder than his current load. He cursed himself for being so prestigious in high school, because it left him bored out of his mind, seeing how he had missed the sign-up dates for the college entrance exams, and thus was doomed to at least two years of community college. Add that to the Biology essay that he had put off until ten o-clock the night before which was due in the morning, and the cold that he had caught two days previously.

It was a puddle of exhausted, sniffley, and silently enraged Roxas who was walking down the campus that the redhead encountered. The redhead: Axel; twenty years old and a college sophomore - notorious trouble maker and possibly the most well-known in his class - more because of his pyro stupidity than his popularity.

Roxas barely registered the flaming red hair in his sleep-deprived and ill-clouded mind as he shuffled along the quad, the cursed tissue never leaving his constantly running nose, and glaring at the air before him with thick venom streaming out of his crystal blue eyes. He was silently cursing his Biology teacher for the mundane essay on protein synthesis within a cell that he had wasted seven hours of good sleeping time on, when he was jolted from his hazed thoughts by a loud and rather obnoxious voice – rather akin to his hairstyle.

"Feelin' alright there, blondie?" It didn't make it any better by the fact that it was spoken directly beside his ear and he could barely hear the footsteps trailing behind him that had been continuing for God knows how long.

Roxas almost inhaled his tissue, but pulled it away at the last moment before doing so, simultaneously jumping around to face the predator-stalker… Axel. Same difference. Roxas' eyes grew and his breath caught in his throat – choking painfully against the already sand-papery throat.

He let out a grating cough, "Jesus," he sniffled, "Where'd you come from?" Black and red stripes glared back at him and it took Roxas a moment to realize that it was Axel's scarf he was staring at. His eyes trailed up to find almost cat-like green eyes and a wide smirk blazing down at him. Yes, _down_. Roxas cursed his genes for giving him the short end of the stick. But, then again, it wasn't he who was short. Everyone else was just taller. Just like the pyro towering before him. Roxas was vaguely reminded of his traumatic first day of high school when the jocks had bodily grabbed him and stuffed him into the nearest trash can.

Moving on.

The smirk grew on the redhead's face as he answered Roxas's question, "English."

Roxas's brain was slow to turn back on. He rolled his eyes, "If you had said it was your mother, I might have had to castrate you."

Axel visibly flinched, "Good afternoon to you too, blondie."

Roxas narrowed his eyes to slits, "Whatever." He spun on his heel, immediately regretting the action, seeing that it caused his head to spin just as fast, but he pressed on. This time, he actually heard the heavy boots fall into place off to his left side.

"So, you seem a bit under the weather as of late." He had shoved his hands into his coat pockets nonchalantly, taking long and easy steps beside the shuffling blond.

The tissue was back over the runny nose, "Your point?" Roxas gave a side glance towards the redhead – the hair color just a bit _too_ intense for his slightly feverish head in the cold and foggy weather.

The smirk softened, but was still definitely a smirk, "I was wondering if I could treat you to some noodley-o's"

Roxas pulled to a slow stop, Axel falling into place just a bit ahead of him. The blond blinked slowly once, twice, and gave a large sniffle before clarifying, "You want to buy me soup."

Axel shrugged, "Unless you already have a date." Which Roxas definitely did not have.

"And why would you want to?" Roxas eyed him suspiciously, though it was only half-hearted the way he glared.

"Because you're walking alone in the cold, it's lunch time, it looks like it's going to rain, and something warm would do that little cold of yours some good. Oh, and because you look like total shit." He placed his hands on his rather girly hips and leaned down just a bit so he could see those brilliant blue eyes just a little better.

"Gee, thanks. That makes me feel _so_ much better." He rolled his eyes as Axel's expression brightened.

"So, can I offer you some soup?" To this, the blond shrugged.

"It's better than eating alone." He continued walking, the redhead beside him.

"Awesome opossum!"

They were soon seated in the dining area, Axel with a hamburger and Roxas with a large bowl of steaming chicken noodle soup.

"So, blondie-"

"Dude, it's Roxas. Blondie makes me sound like some Barbie slut." Roxas turned his eyes back to his steaming soup as he swirled his spoon in the broth. He missed the brilliant grin on the other man's face.

"And I'm Axel. A-X-E-L, got it-"

"I know who you are." At Roxas's words, Axel's obviously over-said speech faltered.

"Memorized?" He paused, "How did you-"

"The bathroom incident? When you 'accidentally' lit it on fire? Yeah." Roxas rolled his eyes once again as Axel's expression turned to one of guilt.

"Shit, does everyone in this whole fucking school know about that? It was in _first semester_." He gestured obnoxiously, almost tipping his water glass in the process.

Great, he was stuck at the same table as some pyro spazz. Roxas massaged the bridge of his nose, the headache that had been developing since the morning – or rather, since the night before – insisted on growing progressively worse. "I don't think people forget things that catastrophic that quickly, Axel."

Axel gave an exaggerated flinch and leapt into a different topic rather abruptly, "So, how is the soup?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow, "Hot." For this, he gave all of the blame to Axel. After all, he was the one who had ordered it extra hot, as if it were some Grande vanilla café latte from Starbucks. The accursed soup had already scalded his tongue, and for that, he was feeling all the more resentful towards the redhead. "So, how did you manage to set fire to that sink, anyway?"

The smirk was a wicked one that sprang up. Roxas wasn't sure whether to feel fearful for the pyro's sanity or for his own safety. Axel then launched into a very elaborate story about how he got all the materials and calculated the formula for the explosion which – at least he said – was supposed to be some sort of Bloody Mary remake, with a multi-colored flaming sink. And apparently it had been to impress some friends of his, but it had gone horribly wrong.

"I accidentally put too much sulfur in the black powder. But _man_, Demyx's Mohawk is still recovering. It was fucking _awesome_ before it started combusting like that." As he listened, Roxas had gained an expression of growing horror. Take that back; he was stuck at a table with an _insane_ pyro spazz with a tendency to make things spontaneously combust. And he had quite forgotten about his soup, though it was probably still to hot to eat.

"Did you ever think about a career in firework engineering?" Roxas asked the pyro-maniac sitting across from him, half hoping that he himself was joking by asking that.

Axel shrugged, a wide grin still in place, "I'm already taking all the chemistry classes this God-forsaken school has to offer." Roxas let out a snort of laughter before he could stop it. The grin turned to a malicious smirk, "What, have you thought about what _you_ want to do with _your_ life?" And there was that question again. Roxas _hated _that question.

He shrugged and took up a spoonful of soup before slurping it loudly. Truthfully, he had been so focused in high school on grades and exams that he had never figured out what he liked to really _do_, besides play video games on the weekends. "Something with an English major?"

"Oooooh," Axel twirled a finger in the air, "You could help me on my essays for English. The last one Aries had me do in class was fucking _awful_."

"Did you answer the prompt?" Roxas raised an eyebrow before spooning more of the soup into his mouth. It actually was quite good.

"Of _course_ I did." At this, Roxas lifted a doubtful eyebrow. Axel groaned, shoving a hand through his gravity-defying hair, "Well, my evidence wasn't all that relevant. And neither was… the rest of it."

Roxas snorted, "Just answer the prompt, Axel. But that's all the help that you get. One bowl of soup only gets you so far."

The redhead's jaw dropped incredulously, "Don't friends get reduced rates?"

Roxas raised his eyebrows, "We're friends?" But his small smile gave him away.

Axel's face brightened, "I like to think so."

"I didn't think friendship could be bought with a two dollar bowl of soup."

Axel leaned forward and pointed a finger in Roxas's face, his sleeve coming dangerously close to the puddle of ketchup on his plate, "But I got it for you to make you feel better because you are _sick_. That's gotta give me some extra points."

Roxas shrugged, "True."

"Does that mean we're friends now?" His wide grin was back.

Roxas rubbed his pink and runny nose with the back of his hand, "Get me another tissue and I'll decide."

Axel leapt from his seat and disappeared in an instant, but not without reaching over and mussing Roxas's wild blond spikes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** My goodness, it is SO much friggin' fun to write these two. Axel with his outgoing eccentricities and Roxas with his sly bitching. This is turning out to be SO much more fun to write than I originally thought! Oh, and I will develop a plot… sometime. Right now, I'm just having some fun.

**Disclaimer:** Same as last time: I don't own these children of a brilliant mind. I just manipulate them to do my will. BUAHAHAA evil author laugh.

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Chapter 2

Roxas had finished his entire bowl of soup, deeming it cool enough to slurp, before the pyro spazz returned with his tissue. Or, rather, tissues. A whole _mound_ of tissues, rather. Which, by the way, was dumped unceremoniously on top of his head and around the surface of the table, which he was _just_ resting his hot head on the cool surface of in order to keep his fever down, definitely _not_ dozing in the middle of the eating area.

Roxas woke up with a jolt upon having the tissues dumped upon him, his feverish mind turning the tissues into snow instead of the paper they were. "What… the hell?" His speech was slow as his mind collected itself.

"Confetti for the sick Roxie." The voice came from right behind his left ear and it took all of Roxas's willpower to keep from jolting upright and backwards head-butting his not-quite-friend in the nose.

Roxas simply groaned and weakly brushed the mountain of tissues off of his head before sitting up and muttering under his breath, "Roxie?" He shook his head from the sheer oddity of having some maniac twist his name around, but immediately regretted the action, as it rattled his brain around just a bit too much for his liking at that moment. _Damn_ he needed an Advil, Tylenol… hell, why not both? But it would probably take Axel even longer to retrieve pain killers than it had to get the tissues. Just a feeling.

The redhead took his place on the opposite side of the table, arm slung around the back of the chair like he was something cool.

_As if_, Roxas gave an internal eye-roll.

"You looked so peaceful, I almost didn't want to wake you up. But I got you some tissues!"

Roxas eyed Axel sleepily, "I said 'a' tissue. 'A' – singular. And what the hell took you so long?"

Axel's grin widened, the sight painful for Roxas's growing headache, "I had to run back to my apartment for them." And he was _so_ fucking proud.

Roxas blew his nose into one of the many tissues and responded, speaking through the soft paper, "I would have settled for a napkin from the cafeteria, you know."

The grin faltered slightly, but blazed on, "Yeah, but your nose is a pretty shade of pink as it is, and we wouldn't want to further irritate it, now would we?"

Roxas grunted in response and blew again. After a moment of him wiping his runny nose and the redhead staring creepily as he did so, the blond looked to the pyro, "Thanks, Axel." Roxas muttered, and the dude positively _beamed_.

"You are quite welcome, sicko. Now you have a supply to last you 'till the end of the day!"

Roxas snapped to as much attention as he could muster in his state at that, "What time is it?"

Axel glanced at his watch – black with flames on the band. How fitting – and replied, "One-fifteen."

"Shit," Roxas hissed, abruptly standing and rumpling his tissue supply in the process. His head gave a quick spin, but he was able to control his near-swoon, "I have English in five minutes."

Axel stood – towered, more like – over Roxas and offered a black gloved hand to the blond, "Care for an escort?"

"Will it take as long as when you got the tissues?" Roxas retrieved his book bag from where he had hung it on the back of his chair and began scooping the tissues up and stuffing them alongside his folders and papers.

Axel gave a fake wounded look, "I've picked up a few shortcuts here and there." He grabbed a couple tissues and offered them to the blond, who gave him a doubtful look in return.

"It's your fault if we get lost and I'm late to English." He hitched his now overstuffed bag.

"Hey," the redhead placed a hand on his hip, wagging his finger at Roxas's face, "I've been here for a year longer than you. I'm pretty sure about the level of my competency with maneuvering around."

Roxas sniffled slightly and shrugged, "Lead the way." Roxas really wasn't quite sure why the older man was clinging to him like he was, or why he insisted upon escorting the blond first to lunch and then to his next class, but he had gained soup and free tissues for the deal, so he was quite content. Roxas's gaze was downcast at the bag he had slung about his shoulder and missed the brilliant grin spread across the redhead's face. And he missed the slight softening of a pair of green eyes. A black gloved hand cupped Roxas's shoulder and he was steered towards the glass door.

The blast of cold wind that struck Roxas's slim form, along with his peaking fever, caught him as he stood just outside the doorway, "Holy _shit_ it's cold." The chills made their way down his spine, spreading the shivering from his core to his limbs. Oh _why_ did his parents have to choose freaking Twilight Town to settle down? The winters here were fucking _brutal_.

And suddenly there was a whole lot of _green_, and the back of a warm hand across his forehead. And the chills weren't all from the fever anymore.

"Axel-"

"You sure you want to go to class like this?" The green eyes had a twitch of concern. The hand had shifted, and a thumb had begun a gentle caress at his hairline. Roxas felt like such a _wimp_ at that moment, with growing need for a personal bubble that wasn't filled with an obnoxious redhead. Roxas shoved at Axel's arm, which dropped loosely at his side.

Roxas shoved his hands in his pockets and shouldered past the redhead, "I have to go. I have an essay to write and there is a freaking test next week, and if we don't get going, I'm going to be fucking _late_." And that's when he was smothered by something warm, black, and red. And no, it wasn't Axel. Rather, it was his scarf, which looked about the right size for him, but on Roxas it could pass for a scarf made for a giant. But, then again, Axel _was_ sort of a giant.

Said goliath adjusted the scarf about Roxas's neck so he could actually breathe, "Then at least wear this. It'll keep the cold off of your scrawny neck."

"Who are you calling scrawny?" Roxas mumbled through the cloth. The scent was intoxicating to the blond: gentle incense and spice. It was simply _Axel_. The strength that his words lacked was doubled in his icy glare.

A smirk was displayed across the overly expressive face, "Was that a threat, Roxie?"

The blue eyes were closed and the tissue-stuffed bag hitched, "I could still castrate you, even in my feverish condition. Or I could stuff some of these tissues in that noisy hole of yours if it would help to shut you up." His tone was tranquil, and he still could feel his core shivering.

His already mussed blond locks were mussed further, "Aw, Rox. I didn't know you cared."

The blond sighed, not bothering to shove off the hand resting atop his noggin, "Let's go."

As it turns out, the shortcut Axel had in mind actually did get them to Roxas's English class sooner than they would have if they had taken the blond's preferred way. And for saving Roxas from the wrath of Cid that would have come from entering late, the blond was thankful. Definitely _not_ of his own accord, that is.

Roxas was stopped just before entering the class by a tug at the borrowed scarf, "I expect to have this back, Roxie." The shorter of the two grunted and muttered an affirmative before disappearing into the English class of torture to be bored in front of the bitchy professor for a half hour before he was pummeled by the damned essay. Damn those odes. Damn poetry. And damn analyzing.

Roxas stormed out of the class, quite forgetting the cold, fever and raging headache, quite content to go along hating everything that happened to walk his way at that very moment.

And a very gentle scent drifted by him, tugging at his mind like a child at a sleeve. Roxas hadn't bothered to remove the overly large scarf from where the redhead had placed it, and his aroma hadn't left the soft fabric.

_Axel_.

Psycho pyromaniac deranged… and sensitive, kind, and caring.

Roxas let out a frustrated sigh as he elbowed his way through the crowd of college students, slowly but surely making his way towards the bike rack that held his own three-speed beach cruiser. The slightly old, rusty and dark blue contraption came into his field of vision momentarily. He unlocked it and tugged - but it failed to come free. And that's when Roxas saw the lock that had accidentally locked his bike together with another. He let out a muffled cry of distress and sat down on the spot, glaring icy daggers at anyone who came near. It was about twenty minutes of the blond sitting on the cold pavement, shivering and wrapped in his own arms, until the bastard who had locked their bikes together returned.

Some dude with a dirty blond crack-job of a Mohawk strolled over and grinned nonchalantly at Roxas and gave a small wave. And _boy_ did he get an earful from the petite blond. The dialogue is censored, mostly because just about every other word was a curse and nothing really made sense as he babbled on in a firey and venomous stream.

The taller blond tried and failed to fend off the offending words with his palms outspread and pressed in the air between the two. When Roxas started to insult his mother's sense of fashion, the older blond stepped in, "Hey! Lay off, okay? Peace, peace! I'll just unlock my bike and you can _go_." And yet Roxas didn't really quite care about the lock anymore. The anger at being sick, getting teased by that bastard of a redhead, being nurtured for and thought of as more of a freshman who couldn't get into the college of his choice or couldn't afford it or some crappy situation like that. And yet, why was Roxas so mad at Axel in the first place? He had bought him soup, Roxas milled around in his brain, and he had run home to get tissues when he could have just gotten a scratchy napkin. Axel could have left him to suffer the rest of the day without a warm and nice-smelling scarf and a scalded tongue from hot soup.

The bike was free and Roxas wrenched it free and left without giving the older blond another word or even a glance.

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**End notes**: Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Well then. This scene turned out to be WAY longer than I imagined it would be. And if I keep on bashing Demyx… well, I honestly don't mean to. So! Enjoy the chapter!

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Kingdom Hearts, etc. And I don't own Monopoly.

**Other Junk:** I got my Axel figurine in the mail today and I am totally geeking about him. He's all in battle mode, but he keeps on dropping his chakrams. Not very good form, really. Now I just need to get a Roxas so I can have them waltz together on my desk. But right now, he is battling this anonymous scantly dressed girl who is about half his size that I got in one of those surprise bags at AX. But she has a gun and a staff. I'm placing my bets on the girl. Go for the shins! And I uploaded photos! Look on my profile for the link.

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Chapter 3

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By then, Roxas had begun to shake uncontrollably. He barely made it to the coffee shop just two blocks from the TTCC campus. His head was spinning and his hands convulsed too violently to grip the handlebars of his bike. He stopped just outside the very welcoming coffee shop – Moogle Coffee – and parked his bike, barely able to lock it, and stumbled into the warmth it provided. He took the comfy chair furthest away from the door and closest to the roaring fireplace. He folded into himself, closing his eyes and allowing his chilled skin to soak up the fire's heat. He could feel himself relaxing for the first time in over a week, but the tranquility was struck down, as it always was.

"Hey, blondie." Roxas's eyes flew open and he twisted to see the wild red spikes pulled back into a pony tail – rubber band versus flaming hair, wonder which would win? And there was Roxas's fever thinking again. "You have to get something if you want to hang out. It's not a get out of cold free kind of place."

"Is it in Chance or in Community Chest?" The blond muttered, nose buried deep in the borrowed scarf which belonged to the guy who apparently worked in the coffee shop after school – complete with the green apron that complimented his eyes to the nth degree.

Said Axel chuckled and shook his head, one hand curled around the back of the comfy chair as he leaned forward to see the blond, "I didn't know this place was called Monopoly Coffee and not Moogle Coffee. But really, do you want something, Rox?"

"Since when have you worked here?" Roxas massaged his forehead with a hand and noticed just how hot he was.

Axel shrugged, "A while. Since the second semester of last year, I think. Not necessarily the kind of job for an aspiring pyrotechnician, but it pays the rent, at least. You know, Rox, you look like total shit." And there was Axel's wonderful ability to change the topic on a whim without any prior warning.

The blond let out a grunt, which sounded more like a groan of pain, his head now throbbing, "Get me something hot. And some pain killers, if you have them. Or just a brain surgeon so I can get a fucking frontal lobotomy. _Damn_ my head hurts."

"Oh, so I'm a _nurse_ now?" Green eyes were rolled, "I _so_ should be getting paid more for this job. And just so you know, giving drugs to customers is strictly against policy. But I could give you some Advil as a friend."

Blue met green, "Are we friends?"

"I prefer to think so. Anyway, I'll get your 'something hot' and manage the pain killer situation. Pardon me while I go put on my scandalous nursing uniform, miniskirt and all." And the redhead was gone, and Roxas was alone to wallow in his painful and ill misery, now with the odd and more than slightly disturbing image of Axel in a white miniskirt holding a fucking _huge_ needle. And just as suddenly as he had left, Axel had reappeared, now missing his green apron and with a large coffee cup and a bottle of painkillers in tow.

"I hope you appreciate this drink. It's my single free one for this shift. It's like, the only perk that comes with the job, and here I am giving it to a customer. God, this sucks." He shoved the coffee concoction under Roxas's nose, which he gratefully took. "And don't you_ dare_ tell my boss about these," he pressed the bottle of Advil into Roxas's free palm.

_Oh, sweet relief_. Roxas tore open the top of the bottle and downed two of the horridly tasting pills, washing it down with his – "Oh _shit_, that's hot coffee," Roxas choked after swallowing the scalding mouthful. He could feel it trail all the way down his chest and into his stomach, where it rested warmly.

"You said you wanted it hot," Axel shrugged, sprawled out on the chair opposite to Roxas.

"Where did you get this Advil from, anyway?" As soon as he asked the question, Roxas immediately regretted it.

Axel snorted, "When you work at a place where the workforce is made up of about 90 percent women, there is always bound to be some sort of painkiller present."

"Oh, God, I didn't need to know that." The blond smothered his face with a hand. He was met with a simple laugh from the pyro. Silence passed between them as Roxas sipped at his drink, until he spoke up again.

"Thanks again, Axel." Blue eyes were adverted, but returned to the flaming red hair when he heard a warm laugh.

"You should stop by more often. You're like, the only customer I've had all month who has thanked me for something." Roxas's foot was nudged by Axel's boot. _Damn_ his legs were freaking long.

"I don't think that I'm technically a customer, since I didn't pay for this thing." Roxas drummed his fingers against the warm cup before lifting it to his lips for another sip. Axel gave a simple shrug in response.

"When I was young, I used to call people who came over to my parents' house customers, so technically anyone who walks through that door is a customer. You're just not a _paying_ customer, but you have a coffee, so you can stay."

"I feel so special," Roxas muttered from behind his overlarge cup.

A wide grin broke out across Axel's face, "You should. It's not every day that I give away my free daily caffeine boost. How is it, by the way?"

"Sweet. And hot. But it's good. What is it called?"

"An earthquake. My own creation, thank you very much. It has like, a half of a pump of all the special flavors." He was proud of this as well.

Roxas raised his eyebrows, "And it's called an earthquake because of all the stuff in it?" This was met by another warming and mischievous laugh.

"Not quite. It's called an earthquake because it has enough caffeine and sugar in it to keep you bouncing off of the walls for the rest of the day." The grin was wide.

"So, I'll be shaking from the coffee instead of from the fever. Nice." Roxas grinned around the brim of the drink and took a gulp, feeling the warmth of it spread through him.

That was when a rather obnoxious voice called from across the café, "Oi, Axel! I thought you were working today, but- holy _shit_, it's _you_!" Roxas's questioning eyes found the utterly freaked Mohawk dude from the bike incident standing about five feet away from his and Axel's cove beside the fire.

The redhead's gaze flicked from blond to blond, his pointed index finger quickly following the movement, "You two've met?"

"He locked our bikes together," Roxas explained tranquilly, calm now that he was warm and the painkillers had begun to kick in.

"And he started cursing me out for like ten straight minutes! Don't forget _that_ little detail, little dude." The Mohawk blond hadn't dared step any closer to the petite blond, and pointed an accusing finger at the latter.

Roxas cringed, "Yeah, well, you caught me at a bad time."

"Well, you must've had one hell of a bad day, then."

Roxas took another gulp of his coffee, "Sort of."

"Uhm," Axel squeezed his way into the conversation, "Demyx, this is Roxas. Roxas, this is-"

"_You_? You're the one whose hair is still recovering from the bathroom incident?"

"Hey! My hair is _not_ that bad, okay? It's made almost a full recovery since then, thank you _very _much, little dude." He rumpled his hair a bit as if to prove a point and abruptly turned to Axel, "So, Ax, you not working today?"

The redhead shook his head, "Nope, I am. I'm just taking a little break."

"One that you should be coming back from, Axel!" A different wine-redhead called from the coffee bar.

"I'll get to it, Kairi!" Axel called back. He let out a groan and pushed a hand through his hair before springing out of the chair.

A brief, "You'd better!" Trailed out from behind the espresso machine. Axel groaned again and began making his way back to his station.

"Ax, get me my usual grande half-caff vanilla and caramel latte, will you?" Demyx twirled a hand in the air, now seated in the recently vacated seat beside the fire, stopping the redhead in his tracks. He turned to stare blankly at his friend, "Oh, and could you put on those little red sprinkles on top? Those things are awesome."

Axel rolled his eyes and placed a fist on his hip, "That'll be two twenty five, as always, Dem."

"Aww," the older blond whined, "I can't steal your free coffee today?" The blank expression on the pyro's face didn't change as he gave an exaggerated motion towards Roxas, who had hidden half of his face behind said free coffee. Demyx extended his lower lip into a pout, "Aww, _I_ never get your free drink." He dove into his back pocket and got said money out and dumped it in Axel's extended hand.

"What, no tip?" The smirk was on Axel's face once again as he crumpled the bills in his hand.

"Yeah, Ax, because all of us have snazzy jobs like you do. Leave the poor starving musician alone and get back to steaming milk." The redhead shook his head and passed a hand through his spikes before spinning on his heel and leaving.

Silence passed between the two blonds before the younger of the two spoke up, speaking around the oversized mug in his hands.

"I really am sorry for yelling at you like that."

Demyx leaned back in his comfy chair, yawning widely "Bad day?"

Roxas snorted and replied, "I got like two hours of sleep last night because of a stupid bio essay, I had to write another English essay in class just before we met, and on top of all that, I've been sick as a dog all day." This got a low whistle of sympathy.

"Whoo, you got it rough."

The shorter blond shrugged and took a sip of his coffee before responding, "Eh, it's really quite a bit easier than I would have expected college to be."

Demyx rolled his eyes and twirled a hand in the air, as he had done before, "Coming from you, maybe. Try taking the honors class on music history with Diz. Now _that's _brutal."

Roxas cringed, even though he knew not what the teacher was to be feared for, "It's only my first year. I'm just taking the basics so I can get enough credits to transfer."

"Nice. I'll probably be stuck in TT for the next century at the rate I'm going." He chuckled at a joke that only he could comprehend. Roxas took another gulp of his coffee and tugged at the black and red scarf adorning his neck absently. And said latter motion caught Demyx's attention, "Hey, that's Axel's scarf."

Roxas paused his tugging, "Um, yeah? He let me borrow it."

Eyes widened and Demyx sat forward just a bit, "Little dude, that's, like, his favorite piece of clothing besides his black coat."

Roxas raised an eyebrow over this, "Yeah? That's pretty cool, I guess." He reached down into his bag and blew his nose on one of Axel's tissues while the other blond gave a joyful laugh and talked on.

"He must really like you or something. The last time I tried to steal it, he freaked and wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the day. But he was _really_ bad at not talking."

Roxas sniffed and gave his stinging nose one last wipe, "I can imagine. So, you guys pretty close?"

Demyx's chest puffed out proudly, "Since we were, like, in those tiny newborn diapers, little dude."

Roxas's gaze lowered, a hint of sadness glinting in the sea of blue, "It's cool that you've stayed friends like that."

"What, you don't have someone like that?" Demyx casually asked.

"Three, actually." Roxas shrugged, "They all went to colleges really freaking far away."

The other blond mimicked the action, "Shit happens."

Roxas gave a harsh laugh, which ended in a weak cough, "Tell me about it."

Axel made his grand reappearance then, holding a to-go cup containing Demyx's order, "You two haven't strangled each other yet? Wow, I'm amazed." The older blond gave a _most_ manly squeal and reached his arms out, and was rewarded when his hands clasped around his coffee.

Demyx grinned childishly as he huddled around his drink, "Ah, Axie, we wouldn't do that to you."

Axel gave a single, loud laugh, "You'd better not. I've got enough spilled steamed milk and sticky syrup to clean up back there without having to drag either one or two bodies to the dumpster."

"Ah, but you'd do it anyway because you loooooove us," The blond drawled, utterly content with his beverage in his hands.

Axel rolled his eyes, "Sure." His eyes flicked briefly to Roxas before turning to rest back on his friend, "Have fun with your drink, Dem." He then turned to Roxas, cupped a hand on his shoulder, and leaned in close to his ear, all in very quick succession, "You know, this is why I convinced him to get _half_-caff." Roxas flicked his eyes to the side and saw a mischievous grin just a bit _too_ close to his face for his own liking.

"I'm still sick, you know, and I'm feeling the hankering for a good sneeze about now," Roxas muttered, a smirk skirting the edges of his mouth. He fully expected for Axel to jump back with a disgusted cry, but it was rather the opposite.

He leaned in even closer, breath hot against Roxas's ear, "I wouldn't mind sharing the misery." The blond's breath hitched and stuck in his throat.

It took him half a moment to gain his bearings. His hands met the redhead's chest, another half a moment frozen in time with his palms against him, and he gave as hard of a shove as he could muster, "Yeah, hang around me much longer, and you might just." Surprise was written clearly across Axel's features as he straightened, before a wicked grin replaced it. He thumbed his nose before walking out of Roxas's field of vision. "Bastard," the blond mumbled, placing the empty mug on the table in front of him before sinking into the chair.

"He's gay, you know." Demyx cut into the silence, suddenly not as focused on his coffee as he had been during the whole exchange.

Roxas quirked an eyebrow, "Okay?"

The older blond replied, albeit too perky for his own good, "How 'bout you?"

Roxas gawked at the question for a moment before turning pensive. He twisted the question around in his gooey head a bit before replying, "Haven't really decided yet."

A bubbly laugh with a knowing air hidden somewhere in there came from Demyx, "You'll find out soon enough if you hang around the Ax too much."

Roxas felt a blush creep up his neck and onto his cheeks that had nothing to do with his fever, "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

Demyx paused for a moment before laughing again, genuine amusement present in the sound, "You're cute, little dude. Just don't try to insult my mother's clothes again."

Apparently the ability to change subjects on a whim was contagious, "Aha, yeah. Sure." His mind was still locked on the older blond's last question.

Demyx stood, paper cup safely in his hands, "Well, I should jet. Tell Ax that I had to go home, will you?"

Roxas nodded distractedly, "Sure, Demyx."

The taller blond's face blazed with a grin as he saluted casually, "See you 'round, little dude." And, just like that, he left Roxas to stew in his own thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **And the plot thickens… oh, and the little MLA format segment is a personal experience. My English teacher is an MLA nazi and I have every right to dis it.

And thank you all for the wonderful reviews! Reviews make the author happiez and makes her want to write!

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own, just torture.

**Other Junk: **Watch the movie RENT. It is freaking amazing. I've had the "Will I" song stuck in my head for the past three days and it is still incredible.

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Chapter 4

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Now feeling much more relieved from his headache, Roxas pulled out his laptop from his bag, a few tissues running astray in the process, and set it against his crossed legs. He knew that he had to write a paper for his Western Religions class that was due at the end of the week, but somehow the little blank cursor on the page didn't move for a full ten minutes. The internet browser happened to open up.

_Oh, awesome. Wireless._ Roxas went to his email, but the only thing in his email box was his daily dose of Calvin and Hobbes. His heart sunk as he stared at the little zero on top of the page. Didn't Hayner say that he would email at least once a week? What about Olette's promise to call? And Pence certainly hadn't made an effort to at least send a letter or even a flipping _postcard_ from Radiant Garden University. Roxas let out a huff of frustration. Of course, _he_ had sent a few emails out, but the exchange was slow and rare.

Roxas opened a new message and began furiously typing out a long-winded message to his three best friends that explained _just _how miserable he was. Halfway through writing, he stopped and read through the beginning and almost winced at the venom his words dripped with. Ctrl A and Delete. Roxas typed a simpler message: "Hey guys, haven't heard from you in a while. How are you handling second semester? Hope to hear back soon, Roxas." He hit the send button before he could change his mind and closed his mail.

The blank cursor mocked him once again. Roxas distracted himself with setting up –_ fucking_ – MLA format. It took him well over a half hour to write his introduction paragraph, and Roxas mentally beat himself up over that fact. Normally, he would be able to get a prompt and write a fucking three page essay on it in that time. The Advil might have dulled the pain, but it didn't clear his mind any. _Fucking Axel and his drugs._ He noted his unceasingly bouncing knee, threatening to knock the laptop from its perch. _Fucking Axel and his coffee_. He shifted the computer onto his stable knee and reached for his notes in his bag and was met by an overflowing supply of tissues – one of which he took and used. _Fucking Axel and his… tissues._

Roxas sighed and rested his forehead in his palm. It was growing painfully hard to create acrimony towards the redhead, especially when the nice smelling scarf still warmed his neck. Also especially because he had brought all of it upon himself by getting sick in the first place – Axel was simply meeting his needs. _In a cocky and annoying manor_, the blond reminded himself. God, the continuing debate within his own head was tiring.

Before he knew it, he was lifting slowly from his light slumber by a newly familiar voice and another not so.

"Sorry, Zexion, he left a little while ago."

"And you gave him _coffee_?" The soft voice was incredulous.

And Axel defended himself airily, "Half-caff, Zexy. He's only _half_ as bad."

"Whatever. It's your fault if he runs out into the middle of the road if he sees something shiny." It was a rather dull tone in which Zexion – Roxas gathered it to be his name – spoke.

"Well, have fun on your shift. You should probably get another bottle of the caramel from the back, though…" Roxas drifted away, but was drawn back ever so slightly as Zexion spoke again.

"Would you mind scraping that guy off of the chair by the fire before you go? Looks like he's been there for a while."

Axel gave a questioning hum, and footsteps approached before a soft laugh shattered the silence, "I didn't see you there, Roxie." Only then Roxas dared flicker his eyes open and was met by a highly amused redhead. The blond let out a groan and shoved the hair out of his eyes, Axel's grin widening, "Guess the coffee didn't work."

"It wouldn't if you only had two hours of sleep and a damn annoying cold," Roxas growled and slammed his long-asleep laptop shut. He let out a harsh sigh and sunk deeper into the chair. Silence met his statement, and he flicked his vision towards the redhead, who still hadn't moved, "What time is it now?"

"Almost five," the amused grin widened, if possible. "What, do you have a class in five minutes?"

Blue eyes gave an icy stare, "No."

Axel placed a hand on his hip – he seemed to do this a lot – and twisted his hand around much like Demyx had done, "Well, Zexion doesn't want you hogging the comfy chair and drooling all over it all night, and believe me when I say that I am being much nicer about kicking you out than he would be."

Roxas's eyes fell shut, "Okay," he sighed in defeat and pulled himself out of the warm chair. That was when he noticed the gentle rhythm being tapped out on the glass outside. He turned his sleepy gaze to the noise and groaned, "Damn."

Axel raised his eyebrows – Roxas vaguely wondered if he trimmed them or something- when said redhead questioned, "What?"

Roxas shoved the eyebrow thought from his mind, "I rode my bike here and I am _not _looking forward to riding home in _that_." The soft patter of rain on the window continued, barely audible over the soft music playing in the café.

The redhead let out a laugh, "You know, I could always give you a ride home." To this, the blond shot a sharp but wary look. The smile turned into a smirk, "What?"

Roxas narrowed his eyes, "You don't know where I live."

"And I just so happen to have the best direction giver in order to get there at my disposal. Seriously, Rox. You shouldn't ride home in that."

Roxas got a handful of his bag and stuffed his laptop in amongst the tissues, "Frankly, it scares the shit out of me more to ride home with someone who I just met today."

The grin hadn't left the overly expressive face, "And have I given you any reason to doubt my undying trust?" Roxas's hands clasped his bag closed automatically, as he opened and closed his mouth once or twice. He remained silent. "Thought so." Axel grabbed Roxas's bag out of his loose clutch and hitched it over his shoulder, "Coming, Roxie?"

Roxas found his voice after a moment, "As if I have a choice."

Axel grinned over his shoulder, "Nope! I can't afford to allow my new friend to catch pneumonia on our first day of friendship."

The blond rolled his eyes, "Friends. Sure." He followed the pyromaniac out the door and he led them to a very junky car. Roxas had begun shivering again and barely caught the fact that the old car might have looked cool once upon a time, but had long since passed its prime. It took Axel a moment to open his door – giving the car a jolt as the door came unstuck from the frame. He reached across the seat and unlocked the passenger side door, and Roxas dove in, desperate to get out of the cold rain.

The radio played soft pop rock as the rattling contraption drove down the street.

"My bike is going to get even rustier than it already is." Roxas mumbled, pulling at the loose threads on his bag that Axel had tossed to him.

"Not if you wipe it down tomorrow. I'm more concerned about a rusty _Roxas_ right now."

"If you can call a cold and a fever rusty." Roxas gave a sidelong glance at the redhead, "Turn right up here."

The car turned right, "Naw, rust is more like pneumonia or Mono, and believe me, you do _not_ want to catch Mono anywhere near finals. It sucks like Hell."

"Oh, so you're just concerned about me passing finals," Roxas rolled his eyes and pointed to a street corner up ahead of them, "Turn left up there."

"Do you enjoy making me out to be the bad guy, Rox? I just want you to get better as soon as you can so you can stop bitching at everyone. And besides, helping is what friends do." He reached a blind hand out and ruffled Roxas's blond mess, a wide grin plastered to his face.

"How do you know that I'm not like this when I'm not sick and feverish?" He removed the hand on his head and shoved it towards the steering wheel.

"Just a hunch." The windshield wipers and the soft music stretched out in front of them, the relative silence only broken by short directions by our favorite blond.

"It's the one on the right." Roxas pointed to a lonely house, squished between two giant cube houses, "It's the one with the camel."

Axel let out a laugh, "You have a camel? That's fucking _awesome_." He pulled the car up to the curb, noting the obvious lack of lights on, "Parents home?"

Roxas didn't respond for an agonizing moment, "They would be if I had any." He grabbed his bag and reached for the handle and wrenched the door open and moved to step out, but was stopped when a warm hand circled his wrist.

Roxas turned to the redhead, whose face was dark and emotionless, "You're kidding."

Roxas looked at him, eyes hard, "Why would I be?" Green eyes widened and a jaw was slackened. Roxas rolled his eyes, "Yeah, don't bother. I've heard it all before. Now let go; your car is getting soaked."

Axel found his voice, tone more serious than Roxas had thus experienced from the redhead, "Then close the door."

Roxas groaned, "You seriously want to talk about this _here_?"

Hard eyes found blue, "It's not everyday that you find out someone you know is an orphan, Rox." The hand circling his wrist gave a light squeeze.

Roxas let out another groan and pulled the door closed, shutting out the rain cascading down from the darkened sky above, "Axel, I _really_ don't feel like talking about this now. I just want to fucking _sleep_." He moved to open the door once more, but the hand did not release. Rather, it pulled him back and he lost his balance in his seat and he fell towards the redhead slightly, "Axel, what the hell?"

A stern face met his, green eyes blazing. Roxas's gaze flicked to the different features – black tattoos that he hadn't noticed fully before, the perfectly shaped eyebrows, the pointy chin – sporting an unreadable expression, much akin to his tone, "Take care of yourself, Roxas." He released the blond, and they stared at one another for a long moment.

Roxas threw silence to the wind, "Thanks for the ride," he spat out quickly before stumbling out of the car. He made his way to the front door of the empty house and made quick work of the lock. It eased open easy enough. The rumble of the engine hadn't changed through the patter of the rain, and Roxas looked back to see that Axel had not moved. The headlights flickered off and on again. Roxas gave a quick wave and closed the door behind him, stuck in the chilly and dark house that had too many memories adorned to the walls.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** Ahhh, hectic week, yo! A bit of a shorter chapter this time because that's just the way the cookie crumbles. And I also realized that these chapters are REALLY freaking short in general. I'm used to writing like 10 page chapters, but this story just seems to fit with shorter chapters. Oh well.

**Disclaimer: **I did not invent hot chocolate. Or these characters.

* * *

Chapter 5

Roxas strolled down the sidewalk in the middle of the quad at Twilight Town Community College, not feeling quite as shitty as he had a day before. He had been met by a rather surprising sight when he walked out the door that morning. His bike, lock, key and all, was sitting just under the porch overhang, dry for the most part and free from additional rust. It was at that moment that he decided that he wasn't going to be _as_ bitchy to the redhead that day.

The rain had stopped and the damp sidewalk scraped beneath his sneakers. Roxas was just about to start humming a _most_ manly tune when a familiar voice snaked about his ear. And, again, he hadn't noticed the footsteps approaching.

"Hey, Rox."

This reaction was much akin to the one that Roxas had performed the first time the redhead had snuck up behind him like that, except he didn't have a tissue to almost inhale, and he squawked out a "Holy _shit_!" while spinning around in midair to face his stalker.

"Which you don't look too much like, today." Axel cocked his hip to the side and placed a fist on the protrusion that seemed to be much too large for a male of _any_ size or stature. But it was Axel, what couldn't you expect? That fucking awesome black coat certainly didn't put a damper on his… badass awesome demeanor. Not that Roxas was looking. Oh, definitely not - _never_.

"Not feeling it too much, either." The thunder of his heart slowed slightly, but picked up when the redhead reached under his chin. Whatever fantasy Roxas had going in his mind – no matter how much he denied having one – was thrown to the wind when Axel tugged loosely at his own article of clothing that the blond still adorned.

"Still wearing it, I see." A playful smirk found his lips. Both deceiving and telling at once.

Roxas shrugged, "It's cold today."

A back of a warm hand found his forehead and Roxas cursed himself a thousand times for the way his heart skipped a beat the way it did, "And you're not feverish. That is a good sign," the redhead stated. He spun past Roxas and took his elbow in his, grin growing all the more brighter, "Want some hot chocolate? The stuff in the cafeteria is actually pretty damn good on days like this. I think they add a little more chocolate to it or something."

Roxas was gently tugged into walking, "Looks like I don't have a choice again."

"It's chocolate!" Axel said, as if it was all the explanation he needed in order to get the blond to go with him. They entered the glass doors of the cafeteria and soon found themselves with steaming Styrofoam cups, waiting in the rather short line to the cash register. Roxas dug around in his pocket for his wallet and ruffled through the bills when his shoulder was jarred purposefully, dangerously sloshing his hot chocolate.

"Axel! You almost made me spill, dipwad."

A long-fingered hand clasped Roxas's wallet closed, "Who said _you_ were paying, sicko? I was the one who offered."

The blond narrowed his eyes to little more than slits, "I can't let you pay all the time, Axel. Plus, I already stole your drink yesterday. The least I could do would be to buy my own today." Axel's mouth twisted into a pouting frown, but he yielded to Roxas. The two forked over the money for their respective drinks and soon found themselves at the same table that they had occupied the day before.

"You brought my bike back," Roxas said weakly, staring at the contents in his cup.

Axel just glowed, "That almost sounds like an accusation. Unless you are actually trying to thank me or something dorky like that."

"It's not dorky," Roxas shot a glance at the redhead, "You didn't have to do that."

"I think a 'you're welcome' is in order." Axel took a gulp of his scalding hot chocolate.

"How did you get my key?" Roxas narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

A mischievous smirk crossed his lips and Roxas's nose was flicked lightly, "I have sneaky fingers." The blond hid behind his hot chocolate, mostly to cover for the gentle blush that formed across his nose after the brief contact. _Damn_, if he blushed because of that, how the hell would he react if-

"I took it out of your bag when you weren't looking because I knew you wouldn't want me to go to _all_ of that trouble after all I did yesterday." His voice was flippant, but a chord of seriousness sung through.

Roxas adverted his eyes, "Thanks for that, Axel, but don't think that I am always this helpless."

Axel drew his eyebrows together – _they're as fucking red as his hair_, Roxas observed, _I wonder if he dyes them too, or if that is actually his natural hair color_ – he opened his mouth to respond, but thought better of the statement. He slipped into a smile, "Right, of course."

Roxas let out a harsh sigh, "Look, I know you're still thinking about what I said yesterday." Axel sobered instantly and set his acidic green eyes onto crystal blue, which faltered at the intensity. "You- you really don't have to worry about it," the weakness in his voice sickened him, "So don't bother, Axel." And there went the casual and flippant air that they had created so carefully.

Blue found green once more, just as intense as before with a current of concern and uncertainty, "How do you want me to respond to that, Roxas? Do you want to be alone?"

Roxas was about to spit out an "Of course," but came just short, realizing it simply wasn't true. He was being weak, and Roxas _loathed_ weakness. It went along with people perceiving him as 'cute'. The blond settled on remaining silent in answer to the question.

They fell into silence, sipping gently from their hot chocolate.

Roxas was the first to break the silence, voice shadowed with distraught, "Are you just here to join the pity party?"

The redhead was captivated by the question in disbelief. He gently set down his beverage and stared into the endless blue eyes, "I'm just concerned."

"Well, I've had my share of concern for this lifetime, thanks." The blond shrugged it off and moved to stand, but a long pale hand reached out and constricted his wrist. He shot a look of pure venom at Axel, but made no move to remove the contact.

"Do you not _care_, Roxas?" Anger laced with unbelief.

The blond smoldered, "Of course I care, dumbass. It's you who is caring too much."

"Too much?" Axel spat incredulously, "_Too much_? Roxas, I feel like I'm the only one who cares at _all_."

"Well, maybe you _are_." Roxas spat back.

Axel's eyes widened, "What? What do you mean by that?" The grip on his hand tightened until it was almost painful.

Roxas's eyes turned downward and he tugged at Axel's arm half-heartedly, "I'm done talking, Axel."

"You can't be serious." The cat-like gaze was almost too much for Roxas to look at. _Almost_.

He dared a glance before his gaze darted back away, "Leave me alone, Axel."

Axel wasn't one to give up so easily, "I _can't_."

Roxas snapped and he turned to the redhead with rekindled rage, "Why do you fucking care so much?"

"Because I care about _you_, Roxas." The tone was matched perfectly to the blond's.

A softening and a question, "And why would you possibly want to do that?"

"Because that's what friends fucking_ do_." The fingers curled tighter around the wrist.

Roxas growled in return, "Are we even friends? Because I'm not feeling it right now."

Axel paused for a brief moment, contemplating the smoldering blue eyes and protective body language of the blond. He lowered his voice, deep and sincere, "I want to be, Roxas."

Roxas didn't – _couldn't_ – admit that he, too, wished for that. But still, he didn't know the redhead and he certainly didn't want to spew his past onto someone who he only met the day before. Especially not to an annoying freak of nature like him. "Let go of my arm, Axel." To his surprise, the death grip loosened and the hand dropped away. Roxas sighed, an ache passing through his chest as he spoke his next words, "You want the truth?" Axel's stare was nothing short of intense sincerity.

Roxas let his eyelids fall for a moment, sucking in a deep breath before continuing, "Fine. I _do_ care, far too much than I really should. That's why I can't talk about it. It'd break me, and I'm not ready to _deal_ with that right now."

Green eyes softened, but the gaze was still just as intense, "And when _can_ you deal with it?"

Roxas was quiet, "I don't know, Axel." He shifted uncomfortably from under the watchful eye of Axel. "I have to go," he blurted and took the opportunity of the redhead's stunned state and snatched up his book bag and the remainder of his hot chocolate. He stormed out of the cafeteria without giving Axel one last glance, no matter how he desired to.

* * *

**End Notes: **Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **I gave myself a second degree burn on my finger while making valentines for my friends (love vs. pain, herm..) while using the wicked hot glue gun. So my finger hurts like Hell and it hurts even more without the icepack that I have on it, which in turn makes it rather impossible to type. So thus, the chapter is short again. Enjoy the inner turmoil, my darlings!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own… um… tissues. Or the company that makes them. Oh, and I certainly don't own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

Chapter 6

Roxas stormed out of the cafeteria and hardly noticed the Mohawk dude from the day before walk past with a shorter guy with silver-blue hair. Neither did he notice the wagging wave Demyx threw in his direction or the startled confusion of the older blond when Roxas rushed by, only vaguely aware of the two males' laced hands.

The latter of which sent his mind reeling back to the bastard of a redhead who dared probe into his _quite_ personal life. Why Demyx and Zexion holding hands brought Axel to mind, Roxas would never admit. He was too furious to acknowledge the presence of any other living being at that moment and, according to the furious blond, had every right to.

Who the hell did Axel think he was, barging in on Roxas's past? Hadn't he lived through enough already than to be bombarded by recalling said events and retelling the horror? He had already been to a number of those damned shrinks before everything had caved out from under him and they certainly didn't provide anything except the reliving of his shitty past and a growing desire to punch something in the face.

Roxas made his way across campus to the place furthest away from the cafeteria and from a certain annoying as hell redhead who simply didn't know when to stop. He sat heavily on a stone bench set in the middle of a planter, a large tree planted just so passerby couldn't directly see the blond. Roxas didn't care that the dampness from the bench soaked into his jeans or that some of his hot chocolate had spilled onto his hand. He didn't care what the redhead thought of him or what he had done for Roxas.

_Do you not _care_, Roxas?_

_Of course I care, dumbass._

The conversation echoed in Roxas's mind as he sat, glaring at nothing in particular, wondering just how the pleasant meeting had gone so sour so quickly. Oh, right. It was Roxas's fault, as per usual. Axel was just fucking _infuriating_. And yet, Roxas looked up every time he heard footsteps pass by his hiding place in hopes that wild red hair, an over-expressive face, and an overly slim waist would approach.

And thus, he began to doubt.

Why the hell couldn't he just speak about his past? Why had he locked away for so long to let it fester and build until it was too unbearable to even think of? But, why would Axel care so much about it and why was it only then when they pyro decided to step into his life? Why was Roxas being such a bitch to the redhead who obviously only wanted to help?

Roxas hadn't always been this temperamental. No, that came with the emotional trauma of his parents dying. If someone were to ask his friends from before the incident what he used to be like, they would say that he was a sweet and quiet kid. Timid, shy, and definitely not out to bitch at anyone who ticked him off. Nope, that had all come with the whole package: dead parents, unwanted and fucking scary freedom, and a highly defensive Roxas who had to be strong in order to survive. Except being strong constituted for a generally closed emotional state with a sloppy overall jerk painted onto the forefront.

Roxas turned into a generally a sad person after he became an orphan. Sure, he had his okay days when his friends were around to cheer him up, but since they had all gone off to their oh so special colleges and left Roxas in the dust to flounder alone, those days were becoming increasingly rare. Roxas was the one who replaced sorrow with anger at any given chance. Roxas was the one returning to an empty home every night, watching movies he used to watch with his parents in the lonely dark. Roxas was the one who would never admit to crying himself asleep, no matter how often it occurred.

And yet, Roxas never removed his mask. The mirror in his home was a bane; Roxas didn't dare stare at his own sorrowful blue eyes that just screamed for attention and pity but would never accept it, and covered it with a scowl.

Adorning one of the latter, Roxas dug in his pocket and retrieved his cell phone and checked the time. Ten minutes until Biology. He cursed under his breath and stood, wiping uselessly at the dampness of the back of his pants. He retrieved his bag which had fallen from its perch and into the mulch of the planter and his eyes fell to the white Styrofoam cup that held the rapidly cooling hot chocolate.

_Axel…_

Roxas picked up the cup and kept it with him though the remainder of the school day.

000

Try as he might, Roxas simply could not put the thoughts that had plagued him since the night before from his mind. He sat at his desk in his room – the only room he dared stay in for more than a few brief moments besides the kitchen – with his laptop before him with his half-written essay displayed on the screen. The cursor hadn't moved for a good twenty minutes as Roxas stared at the screen, eyes blind to the world and mind spinning in dizzying circles. The silence pressed his ears and he couldn't bring himself to stand up and turn on the stereo. There was never anything good on, anyway, and any other distractions would lead to his instant insanity.

Roxas let out a frustrated groan and dug around in his backpack for his notes from class. The frustration grew and soon he was savagely dumping the entire contents of his bag in a bout of crazed irritation. Needless to say, papers, pencils, and a whole bunch of who-knows-what fell from the book bag in the frenzy and landed in a rather disgruntled pile on the desk. He ruthlessly dug through the junk in his continuing search, growling ever so lightly at nothing in particular and stopped when a white something-or-another caught his eye.

The blond froze for what felt like a minute, but in reality was probably no more than ten seconds. Two of Axel's tissues were bundled and thrown in unceremoniously in with the rest of the crap on the desk. His hand shot out and found the soft paper before he knew what to think of the tissues or the redhead who had given them. Who had gone through all that trouble to make sure that he was okay…

The tissue he held was spread out before him and a glaring difference from it was quite deliberately apparent. Roxas simply stared at the phone number written sloppily across the tissue, alongside a smiley face with red spiky hair that vaguely resembled the doodler right beside his seven-digit number. A slew of emotions passed by the blond in quick succession and even he couldn't discern the difference between them in that one blinding flash.

The phone number was there, most obviously belonging to the redhead; Roxas's phone was still in his pocket. His fingers would only have to bring it up and punch in seven numbers and the little green button and Axel would be there.

A flash of anger at the name: _Axel_. That bastard who was too nosy for his own good. That bastard who had asked too many questions and demanded answers. That bastard who had looked over him in his time of need. That bastard who had been the first to make him even remotely happy for the first time since his friends left.

Roxas held his head and growled in annoyance at his own confusion. Hard, angry blue eyes fell to the cheerfully drawn face and a mouth twisted into a sneer. The tissue was crumpled harshly and thrown with a bit too much force to the other side of the room, where it bounced off of the wall and stopped in the corner. Roxas turned back to his essay, which still hadn't written itself.

_Also, western religions tend to_ _AXEL IS SUCH A DAMNED BASTARD, AND HE IS A SORRY EXCUSE OF A HUMAN BEING._

Wide, blue eyes found the words he had just typed. Just a moment before, those words had seemed so true, up until he actually saw them written on the page. Only then did Roxas realize how wrong those words were. Backspace, backspace, _backspace_, DAMNIT, _BACKSPACE_!

Roxas was up and out of his chair before he realized that the sentence was completely obliterated. Quivering hands unfolded the tissue from its crushed ball and fingers punched in the seven numbers as if he had typed them a million times before.

The phone was crushed against his ear and Roxas desperately tried to still his convulsing hands and his thundering heart as the phone rang.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring. _Click_.

"Yo, the Ax speaking. What's up?"

Roxas had a series of heart attacks at that moment, but recovered fast enough to respond to the redhead's nonchalant greeting.

"Axel…"

There was a slight pause, then, "Roxas?" A laugh crackled over the receiver, "So, you found my number. Took you long enough." The blond sucked in a breath and Axel was quick to pick up on the tone, "Rox? What's up?"

"Do you remember the way over to my house?" Roxas blurted before he could chicken out and hang up on the redhead. Not that he was known to do that. Oh, definitely not.

Roxas could almost see the confusion in Axel's brow, "Uhm, sure I do. With a little scrounging around my hippocampus, I'm pretty sure I could-"

"Good." The edges of the cell phone stabbed painfully into the blond's palm.

"Roxas, what's going on?" Concern was then apparent in his tone. This was certainly not the Roxas he had come to know in the past two days and it was just slightly disconcerting.

Roxas let out a coarse sigh, "Just get over here, Axel. You said you wanted to listen." He hung up on Axel before the redhead could respond.

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**End Notes:** Let's all give a big 'WHOOPIE-SKADOO!' to the C2 (I still really have no idea what the heck they are, but it sounds awesome) **Axel&Roxas The unbreakable Bond**! And thank you for reading, and reviews are especially lovely!


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**: UGH. This chapter was HELL to write. Anyhow. Happy post-Valentine's day. Oh, I actually wrote a V-day fic, which I posted yesterday for all of yous who would like to read it. But anyhow. Read on with the angst.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Alice in Wonderland or these angstful creatures.

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Chapter 7

Roxas was a nervous wreck by the time a vaguely familiar beat was tapped out on the wood of his front door, with a ring of the doorbell at the finish. Of all the times to do a 'shave and a haircut' joke, Axel certainly picked the wrong one. The door was pulled abruptly open by a rather disgruntled blond who still hadn't thought of what to do after this point.

They simply stared at one another for a few long moments, Roxas failing in the mask department and showing his desperateness and Axel with a bewildered and slightly apologetic look.

Axel thrust a hand in the hair at the back of his neck and scratched away uneasily, "Uhm. Nice camel." He tilted his head towards the weather-worn table in the shape of said Egyptian animal that stood just beside the door. His comment was met with continued silence from the blond and his expression barely twitched, "So, you wanted me over? You don't seem too inviting at the moment, especially with my being a duche-bag earlier today."

Roxas gave himself a mental shake and a mental slap to the head before stepping back and motioning for the redhead to enter, "Come in." Axel flashed a quick uneasy smile before taking a few long steps into the house, Roxas closing the door behind him.

"You know, you're pretty lucky you caught me as I was leaving work. But then again, it's probably a shorter distance to your house from mine than from the coffee house to here," he seemed to feel the need to fill the silence the house had been plagued with for who knows how long. He stepped past the entryway and gave a quick sweep of the room before letting out a low whistle, "Nice place, Rox."

"It's dusty," The carefully neutral blond droned out, sounding a bit too distraught than he intended. Which caught the redhead's attention. Acidic green eyes found floundering blue. He was standing before the blond in mere seconds.

"You okay, Rox?" His hand lifted to cup the petite shoulder, but faltered and stopped just short of the contact. Roxas took no notice of the older man's hesitancy while throwing in some of his own.

Crystal blue eyes were adverted and a hand was tossed loosely in the direction of the kitchen, "You- you want something to drink? I have some stuff in the-"

Axel interrupted the blond, insisting concern in his voice, "Roxas, I don't want anything to drink. Why did you call me?" He shook his head and gestured albeit smaller than he usually was prone to doing, "Is it about earlier today? Because I know that I was being a dick about the whole thing and you certainly didn't invite me over to drink all your fucking _soda_."

Roxas looked up to meet smoldering green, more concern than anger shimmering through, "N-no. I just needed someone to talk to," Roxas crumpled under the intense look from the redhead, tone weak and quivering, "and your number was there…"

Axel's voice was soft when he replied after a good long moment of his silent staring, trying his best to look into Roxas's _soul_ with those eyes of his, "Then talk away. I'm listening."

The blond groaned and ruffled his hair distractedly, "You're making this harder than it really should be."

Axel blinked, "And how do I make it easier, Rox?" His hand was back on his hip, "Do you want me to turn my back and plug my ears while you speak your bleeding heart out? Because it doesn't work; I've tried." Some small portion of Roxas's brain registered the implied stress in the past that the redhead was alluding to, but the more insistent matter was more pressing in his mind.

"Just- sit on the couch or something." Roxas gestured loosely towards the living room; a dark cavern that hadn't seen light for quite some time.

Axel gave Roxas a stern stare before turning and strutting into the next room over. "Jesus, it's dark in here. Where's-" Light blossomed around the room, blinding to the blond. "Found it," he muttered, sitting heavily on the couch, which creaked under his weight. When Roxas made no move to follow, he called out to the blond, "Are you coming too or are you going to whisper it to me from over there?" Roxas actually did give himself a shake before scowling in the general direction of the redhead.

"Do you want to hear it or not?"

Axel beckoned him with a hand, "Roxas, get over here."

Roxas let out a sigh and shuffled into the room. Axel was sitting where he used to sit when he watched movies with his family. The only chair left that wasn't too close to the redhead was the rocking chair – his grandmother's rocking chair. Axel took little notice of his glance over the rocker before he sat on the hard wood.

Axel leaned forward just slightly and clasped his hands before him, "Whenever you're ready, Rox." His demeanor was quiet, calm, and reassuring. Roxas was reminded of the shrinks, but somehow this was different. Axel wasn't there to diagnose him or to cure him. He was simply there to listen and to understand a little bit about the blond. Roxas turned this around in his head for a few silent, agonizing moments, before he forced the words from his mouth.

"My parents died when I was fifteen." His voice was quiet, his head bowed. He looked up to see Axel looking on sincerely, not judging, not condescending, simply _listening_. "They were taking my brother out to get something from the store. I was supposed to go with them, but I had a lot of homework and junk to do." Here Roxas paused and swallowed thickly, determined not to let those brilliant green eyes see a tear in his own. "And of course, I couldn't leave my homework to get a fucking Christmas tree with them." Roxas fell silent for a moment, waiting for some smart comment from the redhead, but said comment was never voiced. He continued.

"Apparently there was some truck driver drunk out of his skull that ran off the highway overpass. It was a fluke. That's what my grandma said. There weren't any other cars around, from what the police report told me, and there was like, one in a trillion chance that the truck would have hit the car. It's insane, the chance. They could have gotten away. But the part that really fucks me over is that I could have been with them. I could have been…"

"Roxas," The blond looked to Axel, who had barely whispered his name, and realized his strained quivering. But he was _not_ to be interrupted.

"I could have been _in_ that twisted death contraption. I could have been crushed like them…" He couldn't bring himself to go on, the vivid image in his mind created by the descriptions that he had heard combined with his own horrific imagination.

"What happened with the truck?" The redhead inquired carefully.

"It flew off of the overpass and on top of the car." Roxas spared the details. There was just something about telling someone you had just met not 42 hours ago all about the soup that your family had become. "And I'm pretty sure the engine blew up."

"Shit, Roxas." Blue met intense green.

Blue narrowed, "Were you expecting a fluffy story about how they abandoned me to frolic off to Wonderland?"

Red spikes wagged from side to side as Axel shook his head, "What happened after that?"

Roxas sighed, let his eyes fall, "That's where the fun starts. There were plenty of lawsuits and we got a bunch of money from the truck company's insurance. We as in my grandma and I. She moved in here after the accident." He ran a hand over the arm of the rocking chair he was perched upon, "This was where she always sat." Roxas took in a shaky breath, knuckles whitening on the wood, "She died near the end of my senior year in high school. That's why I'm stuck in fucking TTCC, because I had too much crap to deal with without being bothered by college applications. I had just turned eighteen, so the Child Protective Services didn't bother with me.

"I've been living here since…" Roxas trailed off, feeling spent and worn beyond anything he had felt before. He watched warily as Axel stood and crossed the room with a few precise steps before crouching before him. The hand that had faltered to touch his shoulder now had no hesitancy to provide that comfort. The heat from his hand soaked through Roxas's shirt and onto his skin.

The blond turned sour, turning his gaze away with a scowl on his face, "I don't need your pity."

"Then why did you call me over, Roxas?" Soft, comforting, but now slightly annoyed. "You can't just spill your guts over someone and not expect to have some measure of it. What do you expect from me?"

Roxas shook his head, blond spikes falling over his eyes, "I don't know, Axel." Blue found green, frightened and unaware, "I don't know what to expect from anyone."

Axel sighed, shook his head slightly, and returned his intense gaze, "Who was your brother?"

There was a dramatic shift in Roxas. The emptiness in his chest wrenched, "My twin. He was Sora." Here, Roxas gave a bittersweet laugh, "He was probably the exact opposite of me, but my grandma was always talking about how similar we were." He sobered instantly, "His boyfriend tried to kill himself after what happened. I haven't seen him since."

Axel stiffened, "And you?"

The abrupt question caught Roxas off guard. He turned fully towards Axel, just _stared_ at him for a bit, before giving a weak smile and a shake of his head, "No, I have this urge to, you know, keep on living." To this, Axel gave a small nod.

"Anything else?" The redhead inquired gently, squeezing his hand tighter on the blond's shoulder.

Roxas nibbled his lower lip for a moment, "That's pretty much it."

Axel let out a sigh, "Good. I don't think I could handle any more tragic stories for today. But, seriously Rox, if there is anything else you need to talk about, I'm here."

"I know," Roxas replied softly, "Thanks for listening, Axel." To this, the redhead flashed a careful smile.

"Yeah, but I think I'll take you up on your drink offering. Though I might need something stronger after hearing that." He withdrew his hand from the petite's shoulder and stood, his hand placed delicately on his hip.

"But you're driving," The blue eyes narrowed, successfully dry after his intense relay of his life for the past three or so years.

Axel visibly flinched, "Oh right. But I could always walk home. It's probably a twenty minute walk, at most." He shrugged nonchalantly, as he was prone to doing.

Roxas stood, "And you don't ride a bike to school? You're slowly killing the environment, you know."

Axel scoffed, "You think that I saved up for that hunk of junk for six months just to leave it in the driveway? I don't _think_ so."

"Whatever you say, Axel." He shrugged and walked past the redhead, only to be caught by his shoulder and pulled to a stop. He turned and locked eyes with him once again.

"You sure you're okay, Rox?" Concern was laced in abundance in his gaze.

"Yeah," Roxas sobered, "Thanks for listening. It helped." To this, he was given a brilliant grin, and a hand hooked around his elbow and he was pulled in the general direction of the kitchen, though Roxas had to guide the redhead slightly, as he was heading more for the broom closet and not the kitchen.

Needless to say, Axel got his strong drink and Roxas got the monster of his secretive past off of his chest. Roxas watched the redhead take a gulp of his whisky (which used to be his father's) and saw the satisfied redness appear around his over-pale nose, out of the corner of his eye and wondered just what the redhead would bring into his life next.

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**End Notes:** Thanks for reading and don't forget to review! Reviews make the author very happy, indeed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:** Not much to say about this except drunk Axel is probably exactly what I would be like if I got drunk. Except I would be dancing on top of tables and trying to balance stuff on my head.

**Disclaimer:** I don't claim ownership of any of the songs mentioned. And whoever wrote "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers is a freaking genius. Oh, and Axel and Roxas don't belong to me. I just corrupted Axel with ample amounts of whisky. Buarg.

**Other Junk: **_Holy Shit_, people. More than 50 reviews? I love you all.

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Chapter 8

Roxas ended up walking Axel home after he finished the half-empty whisky bottle. The walk, which would have taken about twenty minutes, as the redhead had said, ended up taking a little over a half hour, with Roxas just about dragging Axel a lot of the way.

What was worse was the running commentary about absolutely _nothing_ and fucking_singing _that the blond had to endure, which spewed from Axel's mouth for the first solid fifteen minutes. It turned out that Axel quite enjoyed quoting random movies when he was drunk. It was when he started singing songs from random movies – in very exaggerated accents and voices – that Roxas had to bodily restrain himself from knocking the guy off of his feet and dragging him by his red spikes all the way back to his house.

"'It's springtime for Hitler and Germany-y! Oh, winter for Poland and Fra-ance.' Or how about 'Oh, it's a world of laughter, a world of tears; it's a world of hopes a world of fears. There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware… It's a small world after-"

And Roxas snapped, "Axel, you get that song stuck in my head, and I _swear_ that something is going to get amputated rather promptly. Preferably with a lot of blood and _gore_."

"Aw Roxies," A hand wound its way through Roxas's elbow, further annoying the blond, "You wouldn't do that to your new best friend, now would you?"

A smile worked its way onto Roxas cheeks, quite unwanted, "Just try me."

Some cognitive part of Axel's brain kicked in, "Aha! You didn't deny our friendship! Roxie, you _do_ care."

A hand smooshed over Axel's face, which was quite too close to Roxas's for his own wellbeing, and the blond gave it a rough shove, "But I didn't affirm it, either." And just like that, the face was uncomfortably close once again.

"That's alright Rox. I'll give you ti-ime," the redhead drawled, and Roxas could very clearly smell the alcohol on his breath. He cursed himself a thousand times for giving in to his need for something 'stronger' to drink. At least it was one thing less out of his house to remind him of his family.

Roxas rolled his eyes and gulped down a smile, "If I decide to stay around here long enough, that is."

Axel stopped walking which in turn caused Roxas to halt as well, seeing as the arm that was linked to his own wasn't planning on releasing any time soon. Roxas turned towards the redhead, an annoyed comment just about to leave his mouth, when he saw an utter sober Axel staring at him. His voice caught in his throat and he choked it back down at the look. Stern, questioning, and with a pinch of hurt, Axel looked to Roxas, a small frown replacing the giddy grin that had appeared and had stayed since he first sipped the whisky given to him.

"Are you planning to?" Roxas smiled uneasily at the question.

"Axel, where is this coming from?" The stern look didn't change, and Roxas dropped his smile, seeing that the redhead actually wanted an answer, "You think I'm just going to get up and leave someday? I still have at least a year to go in TTCC, and besides, it's not like I can just book it anytime I want. I'm pretty much stuck to this place until I transfer. It was a joke, now stop being serious and get back to being drunk."

Apparently this was the right thing to say, because a brilliant grin spread across Axel's face, "Methinks Roxie likes it when the drunk Ax sings."

"Sure, whatever. Just keep walking. I'm freezing my ass off right now and I really don't want to stay out here all night long." Axel was far too close to Roxas's face for comfort yet again and he pulled away and started, once again, dragging the redhead behind him. Which was when he started serenading the blond with a round of "Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me."

By the end of the song, Axel was literally half-draped over the blond, who was in desperate need of a personal bubble at that moment. He was about to growl something about amputations again when Axel, head on Roxas's shoulder, took a deep whiff of the blond's hair. The younger of the two's breath caught in his throat as the other spoke, or mumbled, really, "You smell good, Rox."

Blue eyes widened and the hair at the base of Roxas's neck prickled as the hot breath caressed his skin, "You are _so_ lucky that you are drunk, Axel, or you would be a pile of bloody fucking limbs by now if you weren't." His voice lacked the sternness that he had wanted, and was much more akin to his now jello-like knees.

Said knees threatened to give way to his weight along with about half of the redhead's when something rather wet and warm slid up the side of his face, bringing with it the light scent of the alcohol that Axel had consumed. A shiver worked its way up Roxas's spine and the redhead let out a low hum and spoke before the blond's brain caught up with him, "You taste different, though."

And that was when Roxas officially freaked. One hand shoved in Axel's face and the other at his chest and he successfully dislodged the leech from his shoulder, sending Axel reeling back a few startled steps. "Axel, what the_hell_?" He fervently scrubbed the saliva off of his cheek with his rough sleeve, continuing to glare ice daggers at the licker.

Said drunk licker grinned wickedly at Roxas before shoving his hands into his pockets and continuing forward, now content to whistle another random Disney tune. After a good twenty steps, Axel turned on his heel and called back to the still stationary blond, "Oi, Rox, you coming or what?"

Roxas smoldered there for a moment, the redhead rocking back on his heels before him, before shouting back, "Axel, you _asshole_."

He could barely see the brilliant grin, due to the fact that a street light behind the redhead was concealing his face in shadow. The red spikes, on the other hand, were glowing orange and danced like flames with his chuckles, "You know it!" He saluted casually before turning on his heel and continuing onward, but not without a slight sway and a stumble.

Roxas breathed a curse before trotting to catch up to the dork. If it wasn't for the past two days, he would have simply cursed the redhead out and stormed off, never to speak to him again. But somehow, Roxas wasn't feeling all that angry, though he was furious with himself at his reaction to being fucking _licked_. He definitely didn't enjoy it, but on the other hand, it wasn't all that bad. Was that even normal for someone to lick another person? Maybe it was his cat-like eyes, or he was raised on a distant island by lions. It would certainly explain his hairstyle.

He slowed his pace as he came up beside the psychopath, stuffing his hands into his pockets as the other had done. He kept his gaze intently on the sidewalk ahead, right up until Axel spoke.

"Welcome back, Roxie," the blond stole a glance at the redhead out of the corner of his eye and met Axel's grin with a slowly weakening scowl.

"Shut up, Axel."

"Not many ways to do that, I'm afraid. One way requires ample amounts of duct tape, for an examplie-o. Just ask Demyx and Zexion."

A smile stole across Roxas's face, his scowl overruled, "Would shoving my shoe up your ass work?"

Axel winced, "Yeah, that might."

Roxas couldn't stifle the giggle that bubbled up. It was interesting. He was supposed to be furious by now, by all things that Roxas stood for. DOES NOT COMPUTE was flashing repeatedly in the blond's head, but was totally disregarded by the teen, who was in a very rare state of bliss.

Axel had begun singing another song, this one in a smaller voice, but all the more mocking, "…and when I wake tomorrow I'll bet, that you and I will walk together again, 'cause I can tell that we are going to be friends. Yes, I can tell that we are going to be friends."

"Smooth, Ax. Very smooth." Roxas shook his head, grin still wide.

"You'll give in, you know it. Nobody can resist the Ax," the redhead rapped his knuckles against his chest.

"Then I'll just have to be a nobody," Roxas stole another glance at the redhead, who let out a huff and crossed his lanky arms over his chest.

"You're no fun, Roxie." A wicked grin spread across his cheeks, shifting the black tattoos up just slightly, "But I always have a solution for problems like-"

"Axel, where is your house?" The redhead looked slightly perturbed by being cut off from his mildly suggestive comment.

"You mean, where is my _apartment_, not house. And to answer: we passed it about a block ago."

"_What_?" Roxas drew to an abrupt halt, "Why the hell didn't you _stop_, Axel? It's freezing out here and I would rather get home sooner rather than later."

Axel shrugged, arms wagging lazily, "I had to finish the White Stripes song, and I got carried away. It's just on the other side of the block."

Roxas shook his head, smile slipping back on, "Has anyone ever told you that you are insane?"

The redhead puffed out his chest proudly, "Every day."

Roxas snorted, "I'll have to add to that count."

"Feedback is greatly appreciated, blondie."

"I told you not to call me that." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Slippery, drunk mind. Can't expect much from me at the moment." He poked himself in the head, gravity-defying spikes giving way to a long, pale finger.

The blond wagged his head back and forth, "I knew I shouldn't have given you that whisky."

"Oh," a finger was twirled in his face, "but it was delicious. That stuff is like liquid fire when you drink it and it makes a pretty wicked flame when it-"

"Please, Axel. Spare me your pyromaniac-ism." The blond slapped a hand onto his own face, exaggerating only slightly.

"Don't worry," the pyro twisted a hand in the air, "I'll make sure to remake the Bloody Mary show for you someday, and this time I promise it won't blow up."

Roxas snorted, "Yeah, it had better not. I prefer to keep my eyebrows _on_ my face, thanks."

Axel's face was leaned in closer, tattoos stark against the pale skin, "Are you suggesting that _my_ eyebrows were burned off from one of my experiments?" His tone was both accusing and playful, said small tufts of hair rising on his forehead.

"It wouldn't surprise me. But then again, this is _you_ who we are talking about. Anything is possible."

The wicked grin was back, "Oh, he catches on quick, doesn't he?"

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Pay attention to the street or we might pass your _apartment_ again."

"No worries, Roxie," he was waved off nonchalantly, "It's right up here." An arm was hooked through the blond's and he was tugged suddenly to the side, catching him off-guard and spinning him off balance. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on which side of Roxas's brain was active) he caught himself before he came crashing face-first into the black coat-covered chest.

Axel seemed not to notice as he dug in his pocket for his keys. Roxas eyed the door, grated with black painted steel bars, and with multiple layers of paint peeling away from the wood from multiple years of rain and sun.

The redhead chuckled upon seeing Roxas's apparently disgusted expression, "Yeah, not as pretty as yours, but it gets the job done. _Damn_, these keys…" he went back to fumbling through the hoard of keys he had on a black and red carabiner. It must've been either sheer luck that he found the right key on the third try or just the fact that he had done this thousands of times before that got the door open while the redhead was in his drunken haze.

The door creaked open to a dingy hallway with a rickety steel spiral staircase situated in the middle. Yellow lights fixed to the wall provided the eerie light and Roxas was suddenly reminded of one of the bad guy lairs in a James Bond movie. Roxas figured that the staircase led up to the various apartments in the building, one obviously belonging to the pyromaniac who stepped into the cavern.

The bundle of keys was tossed into the air and noisily caught by the redhead before he turned to the blond, asking lightly, "Want to come up?"

As much as Roxas wanted to (but would never admit it), he suddenly was reminded of the paper that was still only half-written, which was still sitting on his laptop in his room at home. His heart sunk into his gut as he realized that it was probably going to take him a good three hours to finish it off and that it was probably well after nine thirty. "Sorry, I have to finish a stupid paper for one of my classes tomorrow."

"And you didn't finish it in favor of hanging out with me?" Axel's jaw was agape, most likely than not exaggerated to a large degree, "I feel so special, Roxie!"

Roxas scoffed, "Like I had a choice. My brain wouldn't leave me alone until I called you."

A hand cupped the blond's shoulder, and Axel suddenly seemed as sober as he had been before his little binge, "I'm glad you told me, Rox."

"Yeah," Roxas replied quietly, "me too." A shadow of a thought passed across green eyes before him, before they brightened once again to Señor Drunk Ax mode.

"Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow, then!" He turned to leave, when Roxas reminded him of a rather important fact.

"Axel, your car is at my house. I'll see you in the morning when you get it."

A grin flicked back on the redhead's face, "Right. Hey, I know! I could give you a ride to school, too. Sound good, Roxie?"

Roxas shrugged, unable to contain a small smile, "Fine by me. I'll see you then." With that, the blond turned away and only heard the heavy gated door shut when he stepped onto the curb of the next block over.

Only as he was walking away from Axel did Roxas truly notice how cold it was. Of _course_ he had been lying to Axel to try and get him to pick up the pace, duh. He took up a swift pace and shivered, wondering just why it was only now, when the redhead was gone, that the chill of the evening permeated his flesh.

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**End Notes: **Review and I can die happily (preferably at a MUCH later time).


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** Hey peeps! I got my –fucking- braces off today! So, in celebration, you get a chapter! Even though you would have gotten one today anyway… but whatever. Anything is a cause for celebration! And I might up the rating to 'M' on this for a _certain_ scene in a _certain_ upcoming chapter. So, be warned.

Happy almost one month anniversary! W00t!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Hairspray, Oklahoma! or these awesome characters.

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Chapter 9

Shave and a haircut…

_Ding dong_.

Roxas's eyes flew open. That was _definitely_ not the usual sound of his alarm clock. Neither was the hard wooden chair his bed and his laptop didn't feel too much like a pillow. He shoved away from his computer, a persistent crick in his neck complaining with the movement, jarring the screen to life. The blond's heart sank before he realized that his essay was completed and that he had fallen asleep whilst proof-reading it for a final time. He let out a sigh of relief before the doorbell resonated through the house once again. Roxas groaned and rubbed the side of his face that was more likely than not mottled by the impression of his laptop's keys. He blindly made his way towards the door, palm rubbing his eye and wide yawn on his lips as he pulled on the doorknob.

His gaze met a grey and red striped sweater and it was only when the annoying redhead spoke that Roxas shifted his sleepy gaze towards the brilliant green eyes and black tattoos, "Yo, Rox. Love your pajamas." He saluted casually. Roxas simply grunted in response and removed himself from the door, leaving Axel to stand at the entrance while he went back to his makeshift bed.

"Bananas and ice-cream? Lovely combination." It took Roxas a moment to pull together the fact that Axel was still commenting about his pajama pants and matching shirt. He gathered his laptop into his arms and turned, almost crashing into the redhead's chest in the process. Not that the blond noticed any. He simply pushed on by, very determined to continue with as little interruption as possible. When he made to go up the stairs, Axel called out to him, "Roxas, what're you doing?" He sounded highly amused by the still half-asleep teen in his rather girly PJs.

"Printing," was his only answer. The redhead's chuckle was faint as he slipped into his room, his real alarm clock buzzing away beside his unmade but unused bed. He made quick work of the alarm before dealing with his printing problem. Once the machine was slopping ink onto the white pages, Roxas fumbled through his clothes and threw on a shirt and some pants. He stepped into the hall and passed a glance over the balcony at Axel.

"_Waiting_," a very amused redhead informed the blond.

Roxas shuffled his way to the bathroom at the end of the hall and muttered, "Hold your horses, Axel."

"But I don't _have_ any horses, Roxie," Axel called from the foot of the stairs.

"Shut up, _Axie_." Cold water was splashed onto his face and a minty toothbrush shoved in his mouth. A comb was passed through his hair, and he made his way back to the printer with all deliberate speed. Papers were stapled together and crammed into his bag and he was off. But before he removed himself from his room, he snatched up the borrowed scarf and brought it up to his nose to absently sniff. He frowned: Axel's scent had diminished to a pitiful amount.

He tromped down the stairs and promptly threw the scarf in its owner's face. Said pyromaniac revealed a grin as he swiped the scarf away, "I finally get it back now, eh?" The blond ignored Axel and brushed by him to the kitchen.

Roxas dug into the bread bag and retrieved a slice. His hospitality, what little of it he possessed, kicked in finally, "You want some toast, Axel?"

Axel snorted, "As long as it won't muddle my girlish figure."

"Hasn't done much for mine," Roxas replied absently, stuffing two slices of bread into the toaster, double checking that it was actually plugged in before starting the toasting.

"Oh yeah, I can definitely see that," he twisted a hand in the air flippantly, "So, you pull an all-nighter again?" He leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, as Roxas leaned back against the counter.

Blond spikes wagged back and forth slowly, "I think I fell asleep around midnight." He rubbed at his face where the keyboard had left a faint impression, "They need to make laptops that can also pass as pillows. It would safe a lot of students' faces that way."

Axel chuckled, "Looking at you, one would think that _you_ were the one with the hangover."

And that's when the events of the past evening all came crashing down on Roxas. Suddenly, he was very aware that he was awake, and quite aware of the redhead standing before him and all that had transpired between them. It took all of Roxas's willpower to stop himself from hyperventilating, and he didn't quite hear as Axel rattled on before him.

"You licked me."

"-but I don't- what?" Roxas's muttered comment caught the redhead's attention away from his ramble about his headache and how, apparently, he didn't get drunk all that often.

Blue fixed onto green, "You _licked_ my _face_."

A guilty smile stole over Axel's cheeks, "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I never really know what I'll do when I'm like that."

Roxas was carefully blank, "And you said that I smelled good."

To this, Axel shrugged, "Well, you _did_." The toast sprang up in the silence. Blue eyes widened to incredulous shock-mode, and Axel grew very wary all of a sudden, "Uhm, the toast is done."

Roxas stared at the redhead for a fraction of a moment longer before retrieving the toast. He stuffed one slice into his mouth and held the other out to Axel, who made no move to accept the bread.

"Roxas, I hope I didn't freak you out too much last night. I'll cut back if-"

"Or not and I can just grow into it," Roxas replied, shoving the breakfast into Axel's face, "Now take the toast, it's burning my fingers." What he didn't mention was the fact that he quite enjoyed Axel's little quirks and rather flamboyant nature, no matter how awkward or strange it felt. More than that, Roxas couldn't seem to imagine the freak as anything _but_ what he was and was afraid to hinder his sheer brilliant nature. The bread was taken, "Your singing was rather amusing, I must admit."

A smile worked its way onto Axel's face, "I'm glad _someone_ approves of it, at least."

Roxas rolled his eyes and spoke through a mouthful of toast, "Come on, if we don't leave soon, I'll miss the first part of my Western Religions class and there is no way in hell that I'm going to miss turning in this freaking essay."

Black tattoos were lifted into a brilliant grin as Axel dove to open the front door, offering it open in a very exaggerated butler-like way, "After you, Señorita Banana Pants."

Roxas tried and failed to stifle a smile, flipped the redhead off, and was promptly serenaded all the way to the car with a bout of "Oh What a Beautiful Morning".

000

"-Though on the outside, I looked good! Then we met and you made me the man I am today. Tracy, I'm in love with you, no matter what you weigh! 'Cause..."

The quite familiar singing voice reached Roxas's ears as he sat at a bench in the quad, laptop resting on his knees and a half-eaten sandwich in his hand that wasn't occupied with the computer. The blond wholeheartedly ignored Axel and declared to himself that he did _not_ know that particular flamboyant redhead. Said person continued singing in a highly exaggerated and girly voice.

"Without love, life is like the seasons with no summer. Without love, life is rock 'n' roll without a- Roxas!"

At that moment, Roxas tried his best to self-shrinkify himself, but to no avail. He took a cautious glance and saw Axel waving, sporting a wide perky grin that spread from ear to ear. He groaned and set his laptop to the side and – reluctantly – his sandwich as well, before taking those agonizing steps towards the psychopath who spoke in an over-loud voice to him.

"You want a bud? It's Hairspray," Axel explained, gravity-defying spikes bouncing slightly less than before.

Roxas frowned slightly and told the man blandly, "Axel, you're making a spectacle of yourself."

Axel, who had apparently been paying more attention to the music coming from his iPod than the blond, continued in his loud tone, "What? No, no, you_have_ to listen to John Travolta." He removed an ear bud and shoved it in Roxas's ear, which promptly exploded with sound.

A moment passed as the song played on, Roxas finding it harder to keep fighting a silly grin and almost snorted with laughter, "What the hell is this?"

Axel gasped in exaggerated shock, "You've never seen Hairspray? Dude, what classes do you have left today?" He took out his ear bud and Roxas followed suit, the man singing as a woman becoming a distant buzz.

"Just Bio." It was becoming increasingly hard for Roxas to resist the small grins as he was around the pyromaniac.

"Fucking _awesome_. I'm kidnapping you afterwards and we are _watching_ it." A finger was wagged before a rather cute nose, blue eyes crossing to automatically focus on the moving digit.

The smile still had not dispersed, "Um, where?" The iPod headphone was taken back by its owner.

Axel shoved a thumb to his own chest, "My house, duh."

Roxas let out a single laugh, "You _have _it?"

The redhead scoffed at him, "Why wouldn't I? It's the best thing since Grease. And_please_ tell me you've seen that."

The grin turned to a guilty smirk, and eyebrows were raised, "Not quite?"

Green eyes widened, "You deprived child! What _have_ you seen, I wonder?"

Roxas scratched the base of his neck gently, "Not much of anything, really, besides the occasional James Bond or some other action thriller. So, not many. There's a few that I watch. I'm not really into movies."

Axel's look turned to playful disgust, "Roxie, how could you? Well, that's sure to change damn soon, because you're going to get some _education_, got that memorized?"

Roxas didn't want to admit that movies reminded him of his parents and of Sora, the latter of which used to watch a Disney movie with Riku every week. Since the accident, Roxas had refrained from watching anything remotely Disney-esque, or just plain _movies_, to be precise.

"Don't you have work after class?" Smug Roxas took control of semi-perky Roxas.

"No coffee making on Fridays, bay-bee," to this, Axel gave a small victory dance, most likely toned down to save Roxas that bit of embarrassment. The blond rolled his eyes and turned back to his bench, vaguely motioning for the redhead to follow. Roxas took a bite of his abandoned sandwich, glancing back at the redhead, who was staring expectantly.

Roxas snorted and completed his bite, "Yes, Axel, I have it memorized."

His face brightened, "Awesome, meet me by my car after your class, then."

Roxas hid his giddy grin by cramming the meat and cheese filled bread into his mouth. Was it just him, or was the redhead making this out to seem like a _date_?

* * *

**End Notes: **Yeah, I love Hairspray and I know that I'm a dork. I just don't like the fact that Axel has a copy and I _don't_. I just sing the songs _really loudly_ in my car with my friends.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** You know when you have like, two days with absolutely no inspiration and then at around 11 at night you are suddenly struck with the creative bug and you stay up until one in the morning writing, even though you know that you have to get up for work at 8 the next morning? Yeah. The first half of this was brought to you by one of those.

**Disclaimer: **-Add witty disclaimer here- I OWN NOTHING!!

**Suggested Listening:** Hairspray and The Producers soundtracks for the first part, anything from Groove Coverage, Cascada, or Ian Van Dahl, but especially Poison by Groove Coverage and Lonely from Cascada for the second part. Because I have been obsessing with those last two as of late. And they fit: lyrics, beat and all.

**Other Junk:** I'm upping the rating now so that people are forewarned. So, BE FOREWARNED! **Now rated M for 'Mature' for future event(s)**. Okay, I'm done. Go on to read, my darlings.

* * *

Chapter 10

The pair tromped their way up the steel spiral staircase in the same apartment building that Roxas had walked Axel to the night before. They stopped before a door with curiously singed edges.

"Number 8A," Axel flicked the rusty half-painted '8' that was crudely screwed to the old door, and it flipped around lazily, swinging back and forth just so, "Commit it to memory."

Roxas snorted, "And why would I want to do that?" No, Roxas. _Bad_ Roxas. No flirting with the guy you met just a few days ago.

"So when you see the billow of black smoke, you know where to send the fire trucks." A sly look and a mischievous grin was flashed in the blond's direction as a key rattled around in the doorknob.

The door was jarred open just as Roxas responded, "And you'll end up blaming it on Bloody Mary, right?"

Axel chuckled and yanked his key back out of the door, "Naw, she only cuts off the heads of innocent little blonds when they take a piss at midnight." Roxas choked and let out a wheezing cough, half from his recovering cold and the other from something that he did not want to admit to. He distracted himself by looking past the slim man and into his abode.

The first thing that hit him was the scent – identical to the one that had adorned the scarf that was placed around his neck on the day of their meeting. Axel reached over Roxas's head and flicked on the light, and the first thing that popped into the blond head was one feeling: warmth. The whole room seemed to have a red-orange glow to it, even though the light from above was just a white bulb with a foggy glass cover. The majority of the living room was taken up by a very comfortable looking couch with one of those Celtic bed cover/wall hangings draped over it – red and black, of course, with what looked like a flaming dragon in the center. Beside the obviously thrift store bought television, there was a lava lamp, which had turned on when the overhead light had. And, to little surprise from Roxas, there were a number of large and half-used blood-red candles sitting here and there.

For a pyromaniac psychopath, Axel certainly had style.

Roxas looked back towards the redhead - who was tossing his keys and book bag onto a small table beside the door - with an obvious look of awe and admiration for Axel's choice of decoration. The latter shrugged, "It's not as fancy or as huge as your place, but it gets the job done. It's my own little shack of paradise."

"It's pretty awesome," Roxas admitted, though he left out the part where he said he wished he lived there. Better not start the awkward silences too early. Axel disappeared around a corner to the right of the doorway.

"You want something to drink, Rox?" His voice carried around to Roxas from the kitchen.

Said blond crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe of the smallest kitchen known to mankind with a cocky grin on his face, "Got anything not-strong?"

Axel snorted and surfaced from his fridge-diving, gaze still intent upon the contents of the cold box, "Hardly. Still got a little more than half a year before I can buy it. Legally, that is." He twisted his hand around in the air at the last bit, "How about a Coke?"

Roxas shrugged, "Fine by me." He had a fraction of a second to uncross his arms as said soda was launched at him from behind the refrigerator door. Luckily, he caught it. Roxas definitely did not want to be responsible for the soda blowing up in his not-quite-friend's kitchen. Not unless he could blame the redhead for it. But he was feeling particularly generous that day.

Apparently watching a movie with Axel wasn't nearly as bad as walking next to him with his off-key loud and obnoxious singing. Even though he was mouthing out more than half of the words along with the actors and he insisted on singing – lightly, mind you – along with the songs, Roxas quite enjoyed it.

It was about halfway through movie when Roxas realized that the heater that he figured would kick on any moment didn't, in fact, exist. It was when a bone-deep chill ran through his spine that the blond actually spoke up.

"Hey Ax, got any blankets? I'm freezing over here." Luckily, he waited for a brief pause in the movie's dialogue, and the redhead's attention was turned away from it and to Roxas.

"Aw, little Roxie needs a blankie?" A condescending teasing tone was topped by a sly smirk from the other end of the couch, one unoccupied cushion between them.

Roxas growled in response, cupping hands over slim arms, "Little Roxie is going to die from hypothermia if he doesn't get one within the next minute."

Axel continued his smirk as he hoisted his lanky form out of his comfy spot, ruffling Roxas's hair as he passed by, "I'd rather you survive a bit longer." He made his way around the couch and returned moments later with a black and red – big surprise there – down comforter. Roxas was inflicted with the see-saw effect as Axel sat heavily on his side of the couch, though he was more sitting on the middle cushion than his own. He offered the blanket over, while keeping half of it on his own lap, "Here you go, Roxie."

Roxas was just slightly miffed, "Share with you?"

Axel smirked, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the blond, "Sharing, it's what friends do."

Roxas huffed, crossing his arms indignantly, "We're not _friends_ and people who aren't friends only share blankets in dire circumstances."

"Roxas, your toes are_blue_," Axel stated pointedly, giving the blanket a shake.

The blue eyes widened, "What? They are?" He dropped his arms to the couch and leaned to look at his toes, but that was before a blanket-covered Axel tackled him. He let out a most manly cry as he was crushed between a lanky man and the over-stuffed couch with arms wrapped around them both and the redhead's arm around the blond. "Axel!" Roxas whined, squirming and kicking his free legs half-heartedly. The older man definitely didn't have any sense of a personal bubble what so ever, and the sandwich-wrapped blond's was being popped. Repeatedly.

Axel mimicked his whining tone, "Roxas!"

Roxas gave a most adorable – _not_ cute – pout and continued his exaggerated whining, "Get your _own_ blanket!" He was having such a time of protesting being glomped that he didn't notice how close their bodies were at that very moment.

"But Roxie, I've only got one bed. Why would I have two of these?" He made no move to remove his grip around the blond.

Roxas continued as he was, "Axel, get off, we're missing the movie."

Axel was honestly trying not to laugh his head off, "But I've seen it a billion times already!"

Roxas was reduced to uncontrollable – still manly – giggles, "But I haven't!"

"But I could always just pause it," Axel was able to get out between his snickers.

"But that would give me an unfair chance at stealing the blanket for myself, and then where would you be?"

"But, but! I could steal it back just as easily. Besides, all they're doing is running around in the ghetto."

"But I want to _see_ them running around in the ghetto!" Roxas quickly rebutted, and he half expected Axel to respond with something along the lines of, 'I could run around in _your_ ghetto.' He promptly relapsed into a bout of uncontrollable laughter.

Axel, after _not_ saying what Roxas had imagined, laugh along, "Now I'm kind of wondering if someone spiked your Coke."

Roxas shook his head and gasped for breath, "No, it's just the caffeine."

"God, you're almost as bad as Demyx," the redhead observed, before getting a prompt elbow in the gut.

"Axel, movie." Still with a wide smirk on his face, he shoved at the man's chest and was surprised when he was actually released from the death trap of blanket and arms. Roxas sat up and straightened out his rumpled shirt and mussed hair while clearing his throat, which sounded more like a snort of laughter. The pair soon found themselves sitting albeit closer to one another than before, Roxas with his back leaned against Axel's side as he sat _properly_ on the couch, the blond's feet tucked under the blanket that was cocooned about them both.

Roxas's toes were much pinker and actually had blood circulating through them, which was more than enough cause to celebrate. That, and the fact that the blond couldn't get the feeling of being bodily squashed by the most handsome dude he had ever had the chance to meet out of his head. Again, not that he would ever admit to it.

Another movie and a cheap Chinese take-out dinner later, the pair found themselves rather satisfied with life as the credits to The Producers scrolled on the screen. Each was howling with laughter at some odd comment that Axel had made, and Roxas found it quite hard to breathe without creating very embarrassing snorts, which simply elevated the laughter of the redhead.

Eventually, they caught their breath, Axel's head hanging backwards over the back of the couch and Roxas's on his shoulder. They fell into relative silence then, and before Axel jostled the blond by shrugging his shoulder/temporary pillow, he posed an evening-altering question.

"Hey, Rox. Ever been to a rave?"

000

The walls pulsed with the heavy beat provided by the improvising DJs at the head of the room. Not that Roxas could actually _see_ that far, seeing that the fog machines were on overdrive and the laser lights insisted on creating epileptic-like effects. It didn't help that the dark_creatures_ with arms raised and erotic dancing were covering the entire floor area and Roxas could spot ten couples off the bat simply _sucking face_.

He was ushered on by a rather energetic Axel, quite cutting in to his observations of the place where he was about to… _dance_, apparently. And to answer Axel's question, _no_, Roxas had never been to a rave before.

Roxas tried his best to slip between the dancers, and was ultimately successful. He was somewhere in the middle of it all – slick bodies dancing all around him as if the entire population were one moving, living body. Which was when he noticed that none of them were _his_ particular slick, dancing body with wild red gravity-defying hair. And that was when Roxas began to panic. He simply stopped moving altogether, not noticing the odd glance from dancers beside him.

When long fingers wrapped around his waist, Roxas thought that he had definitely lost it up until the moment that he turned his head around as far as it would go and met a pair of laughing eyes just _feeding_ off of the pure ecstasy of the driving music and the faceless dancing forms. But, then again, that action by that particular redhead may have heightened Roxas's awareness of his surroundings and just exactly who was in it. Or, more like, who exactly was popping a particularly personal bubble.

The fingers caressed slightly with the swaying, giving the blond a hitching breath. A grand smirk gave way to a soft message relayed right next to his ear, "Relax and just _move_, Rox." The hands were removed, but even as the fingers left, Roxas could feel their heat and he sucked in a breath, convinced that all the blood in his body was currently taking refuge in his face.

He turned to face the beaming redhead and returned the expression.

Never in his life had he felt so free as in that moment. Hell, he didn't care about anything except the sheer pulsating sound of music and sweating, moving bodies. He didn't even turn around when his ass was groped by some random raver. But there was one factor he was constantly aware of that was constantly by his side. That one single male with the slim waist, cocky and ridiculous attitude, irrational love for strange movies and musicals, crimson hair, black tattoos, and a personality to match.

If Roxas gave one coherent thought through the entire ordeal, it would be one simple phrase.

_I think we could be friends_.

* * *

**End Notes: **I SO want to go to a rave someday. Oh, and you people ROCK my rainbow toe socks. Seriously. You people are the reason why I write this thing and put it up here. Otherwise, I would only be writing it for myself, and that's not nearly as much fun. So thank you to all readers and especially to my reviewers! On a different note, I am SO looking forward to writing the next scene.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note:** Nothing much to say, except I LOVED writing this. Ahaha. Yeah. Looking forward to reviews.

**Disclaimer: **No way I own these dudes. I just write them.

**WARNING: **Yeah, if you are an innocent little child, I would suggest you skip over the italicized part. THIS is why I upped it to Mature, by the way.

* * *

Chapter 11

_The violent pulsing and grinding movements between their bodies became the metronome that they could not feel within. Blunt nails dug at slick skin, leaving heavy red marks to match the dampened and skewed hair that spread across the same back._

_Teeth sunk into his neck and a thick moan emerged, and the pair was overcome by the pure sensation. Two sets of clothing had been thrown to the floor without care: one large, the other small._

_Nothing was spoken in the pure passionate heat of the moment, and still no sound but their aching and choking breaths came even after it passed. The blond rolled himself atop the redhead and kissed him deeply, hoping that what was not spoken was delivered by the passion. The words would be useless for either of them to utter._

_A hand dove into golden spikes and the other against soft, pale skin, and they submerged once more, desperate to feel. Neither cared that they had long surpassed exhaustion._

_The moment thickened again with their needy and sloppily desperate movements. Each fancied they felt a spark, a glimmer, a sliver, that signified that they were more than soulless creatures with no love in their hearts besides for the own blood rushing through their bodies._

_Roxas was encased in strong arms, his own tangled in red hair, bare torsos connecting and skin slick on skin. Haggard gasps filled the silence, sticky moans following._

_Breathe and move. Breathe and move._

_The very walls seemed to oscillate with them, the darkness pressing in, the heat intense. They resided in a void where only they could survive and flourish._

_Nothing mattered but the man below him and the ecstasy of their naked forms pressed together._

_A cry escaped his lips and he was thrown into darkness._

000

Blue eyes shot open, choking on a name that was still new but all too familiar in a harsh gasp. What were arms pinning him down were then tangled sheets, which the blond struggled weakly against. Wide blue eyes glanced to the side and Roxas half expected to see red spikes, but he was alone.

A dream.

A fucking _dream_.

He tore at the stifling sheets with weak arms and froze. Teeth were clenched and a curse hissed into the hot air.

A fucking _wet_ dream.

Roxas's mind reeled and he fell back against the mattress and let out a frustrated groan, digging his fingers though his damp blond spikes. Hadn't had one of_those_ dreams for a while now. He recalled the previous night with the utmost clarity. Mindless dancing to droning, pulsing music in the misty and overheated dark room, with a redhead by his side, small touches then gone unnoticed were now searing on the blond's skin.

Axel.

"Shit," Roxas hissed, trying his best to scrub the thoughts circling his mind with his hands rubbing against his skull. He lay there, lower half still tangled in the messy, sticky sheets for a while, clearing his mind of that single man who had just waltzed into his life and turned it upside down.

Eventually, blue eyes turned towards the alarm clock beside his head and his heart gave a flip before realizing that it was Saturday and that he had purposefully turned off his alarm the night before. So, Axel hadn't given him a date-rape drug and/or strong alcoholic beverages after all. How considerate. That scratched off the drug and alcohol induced cause for the dream from his mental checklist.

The clock turned from 11:59 to noon and Roxas carefully plucked himself from his bed before making his way _straight_ to the shower, which he turned on_ fucking cold_ and dove in with relief. Which was when the dream he was so desperately trying to forget came to bite his ass.

"No," Roxas ground out through clenched teeth, "not again, I swear. _Damnit_." He promptly went on to list the different names of each part of a human heart's anatomy, or all that he could remember from his physiology and anatomy class in his junior year of high school, "Aorta, Superior Vena Cava," lips sucking his neck, hands caressing his- "Pulmonary Vein and Artery, Right atrium," hot breath against his skin, wickedly passionate green eyes staring at- "left ventricle, aortic valve, right… Agh!"

There was _no way_this was happening. _No fucking way. _Roxas cursed again and smothered his head with some of his nice-smelling shampoo.

_You smell good, Rox._

It was useless. Roxas released a solid stream of curses as he savagely rinsed his hair before taking a bar of soap to his limbs with draconian force and precision. He was out in a matter of minutes and quick to dry off. He slopped on some clothes and made his way downstairs. A bowl of oatmeal loaded with sugar and cinnamon was made and wolfed down by a savagely hungry blond, followed by a banana and some almost expired milk.

It was decided that Roxas needed more groceries, pronto. _Anything_ to get the thrice or more damned redhead out of his mind.

He was out of the door with his house key and cell phone stuffed carelessly in his back pocket and on his bike within a matter of a few moments. Roxas was about halfway to the store before he realized that he had ultimately failed to comb his hair after the rather uncomfortable shower.

He tried his best to straighten the hap-hazard locks of blond hair with one hand on the handlebars of his bike. Roxas would never admit, however, that he was too obsessed with fixing his hair to see the curb that obviously jumped out of its stationary position just to spite the blond. Said teen flew most graciously into a planter in the middle of the sidewalk. One moment, he was soaring on his bicycle and the next, he had a face full of shrubbery and a sting on his elbow and the opposite forearm.

Roxas pushed himself up on strangely shaky arms and was very aware of the cars running by and a set of small, quick footsteps approaching.

"You okay there?" Roxas looked up to meet vaguely familiar wine-red hair and overly concerned blue eyes quite akin to his own.

And it clicked: the coffee shop. She worked at the same coffee shop as Axel. And suddenly, Roxas had to be as far away from her as humanly possible. He stood and hurriedly brushed at the front of his thighs, "Yeah, fine."

And the girl – just slightly shorter than him, actually – wasn't going away all that easily, "You sure?"

"Yeah, fine," Roxas repeated, brushing absently once more at his pants before retrieving his bike. He looked back at the girl, still standing with a bag dangling from her hand and holding a concerned expression that still knitted her brow. "Thanks, though."

A small smile worked its way onto her lips, "Sure thing."

Roxas made it to the store without further incident, but the scrapes on his elbow and arm were burning by the time he parked his bike and locked it up. He certainly felt ridiculous in the band-aid section of the store with sizeable scrapes on his arms clearly visible and even more so when the cashier scanned them in, along with other necessary foods, like mac 'n cheese and the ever-wonderful food, Top Ramen. Not that Roxas was _that_ much of a food junkie. He did buy some apples and other good-for-you stuff. Just not as much.

So, Roxas made it safely out of the store without further humiliation and a familiar store caught his eye from across the street.

Chocobo Video.

The idea dawned on the blond instantly. He was quick to slap on some band-aids onto the most injured spots on his arms and lugged the groceries, along with his bike, to the crosswalk.

Roxas's mind was carefully blank as he watched for the red hand to turn to a white 'It's okay to walk' person. When the light turned, he stepped off the curb and was soon standing before the shabby movie rental store. He parked his bike just inside the door, after asking permission, of course, and continued to stroll the isles of the rather cluttered but large store.

He was going to watch movies until his brain rotted. That was _sure_ to get the dream out of his mind. He was shuffling through the horror section when he was rudely interrupted.

"If I didn't know better, I would've thought you were stalking me."

Roxas turned with a yelp - He _really _needed to get a grip on that whole 'surprise hello' business – and looked into green eyes, which he had seen last infused with lust and passion. In his dream, of course. A wide grin was spread across pale, tattooed cheeks. And suddenly, Roxas's thundering heart was no longer just from the shock of his greeting.

Axel let out a snort of laughter, "Sheesh, Rox. It looks like you just saw a ghost or something. But then again, you _are_ in the horror section."

The blond found his voice after gaping his mouth for a bit, "Yeah, or something." His gaze trailed down to a logo of a yellow bird on Axel's black shirt. Before the redhead could put in a 'Like what you see?' comment at his staring, he posed a rather obvious question and quirked an eyebrow, "You work here?"

His smile was brilliant, as always, "Weekends and summers. So, you like horror?"

"Sure," _anything to keep from thinking of you_. He busied himself by diving in and pulling out a DVD case, not really bothering to actually read it.

"Rox, what happened to your arms?" The blond's heart leapt as his slim wrist was caught and brought up to green eyes to view the band-aid covered scrapes.

Roxas shrugged, "Fell off my bike." He was quick to change the subject, putting the DVD back onto the shelf, "You work two jobs?"

"It pays the rent," Axel shrugged, still inspecting the arm, and was dawned by a brilliant idea, "Hey, you should watch that. Come on," Roxas's wrist was tugged and the skin burned at the continued contact. _Shit_. He _really_ needed to leave.

He was tugged to the musical section, obviously, and Axel begun shuffling through the movies. He was muttering something about some musical that was, apparently, awesome, when Roxas decided to make his quick getaway.

"Sorry, Axel, I need to go," he muttered, his brain screaming at him to get as far away from the redhead as fast as possible. When Axel turned around to pose a question, he saw a whisk of blond disappear around the movie rack.

Roxas could see the door – a beacon of white light - and he made a mad dash for it, or as much of a dash as he could without actually _running_ and risking strange stares. And his escape was thwarted, has he had much expected. A hand wrapped around his shoulder and pulled him to a stop.

"Why the rush?" Axel's tone was still playful, but with an undercurrent of genuine curiosity. Why the hell was he so insistent?

"I'll see you later, Axel," Roxas ground out. He couldn't bring himself to look at the redhead, sure that haunting visions would return if he should steal a glance. He shoved Axel's hand from its perch and strode to where he dumped his junk.

"Roxas?" And there was the concern. Always with the fucking _concern_.

The blond fully ignored Axel as he collected his groceries and bike, which was done in a matter of seconds, and left without another word or a passing glance. He was already three blocks away from the video store when his cell phone went off in his pocket.

Roxas cursed and pulled up onto the curb before retrieving the phone. He flipped it open and pressed it to his ear, "What?" He asked irritably.

"Roxas, what the hell? Why'd you leave so fast?" The redhead's voice crackled over the speaker. And just _how_ did Axel get his cell number? And then he remembered that he had given it to him the night before._Great_.

Blue eyes narrowed, "Sorry, wrong number." He snapped the phone shut and shoved it back into his back pocket and continued on his way home.

* * *

**End Notes: **AHAHAHA I'm evil, aren't I? Yeah, who thought that first scene actually happened? Come on, fess up. Erm. Reviews make me happy.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note:**This chapter was TOO FUN to write. And, 100 reviews? Really, people? I love you all SO MUCH, so this chapter is dedicated to all of you who have reviewed. Really, you ROCK. And this chapter was brought to you (a little early, I might add) by my thumb. RIP little thing. I smashed it in my car door on Saturday and I had to take a break from typing this thing every 15 minutes to put it on ice due to the fact that it has been throbbing for the past 28 straight hours. So, I hope you enjoy this chapter because it was brought to you by excruciating pain. But it _was_ fun to write, pain aside. Anyhow. Angsty rant over. Stop reading this and get to the chapter, by golly!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything in here. B'duh.

**Other Junk:** Uhm. I'm a goofy goober, yeah. And my Axel action figure just fell over and landed on his _face_. MAN that was funny.

* * *

Chapter 12

Roxas threw the groceries into the kitchen and promptly shoved himself face-first into the corner of the couch, not bothering to turn on a light. He pressed his knees to his chest and just huddled there, not quite caring that he was applying painful pressure onto his scraped arms.

Why the hell did he have to have this inner turmoil _now_? It wasn't like he hadn't thought about liking another guy like that. It was just… Axel was just _there_ and _in his fucking face_ all the time that he couldn't sort through it at the speed he would have liked. Said speed would be at least a month or so of contemplating. And yet, Axel was a superb catalyst.

But why the hell was he falling for the eccentric goof? Sure, he was handsome enough for any living being to swoon over and he was so assertive and… nice. But that brought up the question: why Roxas? It wasn't like there were a whole flock of cute little boys/girls that he _could_ have gone after, but _really_. What was that saying? There's a whole bunch of fish to fuck? No, that wasn't it. But close enough.

And that fucking _smile_ of his. Why the hell was that so _catchy_? Roxas was certain that he hadn't smiled as much as he had in the past week than he had for the past four months. And nobody but his close friends had been able to bring it out that easily.

Why was there a flutter deep in his chest? It felt more like fear than anything else. And then a name came to mind: _Riku_. Roxas groaned and huddled deeper into the cushions. Was that it? Did he think he would end up like his twin's lover if anything were to happen to whoever he happened to be with? Or the other way around…

An obnoxious ring came from his back pocket, followed by a most annoying vibration. Exactly_not _what Roxas wanted. He tore the phone from his pocket and briefly glanced at the screen before hurling it across the room. Who was it? Take a wild guess.

Why the hell was the redhead so insistent? He didn't seem to know how to give up when he was ahead. Not that he was very ahead right then. The cell continued to ring and stopped. The silence was a sweet thing to behold, until another beep filled the air.

The damned freak had left a message. But Roxas refused to move from his corner of comfort and solitude. Which he was content to stay in for the next three hours. But most of that time was spent somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

He was jolted out of the tranquility after said three hours by that highly annoying cell phone once again. Roxas groaned and looked at the clock on the wall. It was four thirty. How the hell had his little mope session gone on that long? Roxas waited for the final beep that signaled the end of a message being left before he pried himself up from the couch and retrieved the device from Hell. He jammed and held the 1 in order to get his voicemail. And _yes_, he was his own number one speed dial. It just happened to do that on its own and Roxas never really bothered to change it. Not that he had anyone he called often enough to be his number one speed dial. Whatever.

Crammed once again into the corner of the couch with the phone crushed against his ear, Roxas heard a familiar mechanical female voice issue from the crackly speaker, followed by a different familiar voice. No surprise there.

"_Roxas, I _know_ this isn't a wrong number. Your voicemail message gives it away. Just pick up your damned phone and _talk_ to me._"

Roxas groaned and skipped to the second message.

"_Yeah, me again. Just trying my luck again, but someone doesn't know how to answer his phone. Really, Rox, is it that hard to talk to me? Something is obviously wrong and you _know_ that I don't give up that easily_."

Roxas snorted. _Duh_ he knew that. He snapped the phone shut and dropped it to the floor. It landed on the carpet with a dull thud and Roxas couldn't care less. If Axel wanted to talk to him, then _good fucking luck_. He was going to have to try harder than that. A wicked grin stole across Roxas's cheeks.

Somehow, no matter how crazy it seemed, it felt good to have someone thinking of him. And Roxas was _enjoying_ it, strangely. But the thought of Axel and of his dream of said redhead dampened his twisted sense of humor. Roxas really hadn't expected to think about Axel like _that_. At least not for a while. But what had that crazy Mohawk dude said? Hanging around Axel would make him figure out his sexuality? Well damn it if he hadn't figured it out already. If that dream hadn't opened his mind, Roxas didn't know what else would.

Actually _living_ that dream might. Roxas inhaled some of his own spit and lapsed into a fit of incredulous coughing. Where the hell had _that_ thought come from? Oh _shit_, he certainly wasn't as straight as he had thought.

If that was the case, why was he pushing the redhead away? He was considerate and kind, although albeit nosey, and let's not forget to mention that he was drop dead _gorgeous_, and who _knows_ what that torso looked like _without_ the shirt and coat. Much less what it _felt_ like.

_WOAH_. Bad thoughts. _Very_ bad thoughts. Roxas scrubbed his burning face, but it did little good to rid himself of his dirty little brain. So, Roxas turned to naming as many muscles in the human body as possible.

"Frontalis, sternocleidomastoid, orbicularis oris and oculi, deltoid, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, p-pectoralis major, sartorius, biceps brachi, r-rectus abdominis…" Oh, this was _not_ helping. Not only was it highly connected to the body, no brainer there, it certainly didn't take away the visual of a _very_ naked redhead man out of his mind, who just so happened to be caressing each muscle as he-

Okay. _Bad brain_. Shut the hell up. _Kittens_. And chocolate smores. Yes. Think about small animals and chocolate. And fucking _zombies_. Just_whatever_.

Roxas groaned, clenching his jaw to keep from grinding his teeth in frustration. Nope, certainly not straight and definitely not asexual, as he had thought once upon a time.

"We're not even friends yet!" Roxas cried out into the dark and empty house. Or were they? Roxas scowled. Definitely not. You don't just become friends over the course of… how many days? Three? Four? No matter. It hadn't even been a full week and already Roxas was fucking_fantasizing _about him? _Not_ happening.

Roxas took a few minutes to clear his mind. It was difficult, but he was able to keep his brain in silence.

That was when the familiar tune was tapped on his front door, with the doorbell following. There was only _one_ person who always knocked the shave and a haircut tune on the door. Roxas groaned internally and scrunched tighter into the cushions, hoping that he was invisible to the redhead just beyond the door.

A minute passed in silence, and he didn't hear further footsteps on his porch. Three pointed knocks resounded through the house, followed by a slightly anxious voice, muffled by the wood blocking his entrance.

"Roxas, I know you're in there. You're bike is right here." _Shit_. He had left his bike on the porch. The phone burst into song on the floor beside him and his internal profanity vocabulary grew. Axel continued talking through the door, "And I can hear that ringing, Rox." Two solid knocks issued and Roxas remained silent.

"I've got movies!" Axel called, sounding desperate to get the blond to answer the door. But Roxas wasn't too keen on giving in. Another minute of silence passed, until it was broken once again, "Okay, Rox. At least give me some sign that you're in there so people don't think that I'm crazy and talking to myself." _As if you don't talk to yourself and people look at you like that already._ Roxas rolled his eyes and pulled himself from the corner of the couch and stepped lightly to the door and leaned his shoulder against the wood. Shave and a haircut was knocked from Axel, and Roxas responded with two knocks. A breath that had obviously been held was let out by the redhead in his relief.

"Ha, knew you were there." He cleared his throat before continuing, "Now, Rox, I really don't know what the hell I did, but I would be perfectly willing to apologize for whatever it was."

Roxas could have smacked himself. Axel thought that he had done something… out of line or something. He spoke to the door, head resting on the old wood, "You didn't do anything."

Axel sighed in relief again, "Then can you tell me why you seemed so freaked out in the store?"

Roxas snorted, "I would prefer not to, if that's alright." Like _hell_ he was going to tell the redhead he had a wet dream about _him_. Oh_Hell_ no.

A hopeful and tired voice came next, "Could you at least let me in?"

Roxas pulled in a breath, eyes falling shut. He contemplated going on as they were, but ultimately decided it was for the best that he face Axel face to face. Before he could chicken out, he opened door silently. He kept his eyes firmly on the black boots just beyond the threshold. And he had never felt as pitiful as he did in that moment. Probably looked it, too. He scratched behind head and extended his silence.

Axel had an obvious grin, and it showed in his voice, "I was afraid I had lost you."

Roxas shook his head and allowed himself to glance up at two dark tattoos, but not at the green above them, "Do you ever quit?"

Axel grinned and replied matter-of-factly, "Nope. Gonna let me in? This camel is starting to freak me out a bit."

The blond shrugged, "Depends. What did you bring?" He motioned slightly towards the plastic bag in the redhead's hand. It had the yellow chicken-ostrich hybrid that matched the one embroidered into Axel's black polo shirt. Roxas gave an internal shudder at the horrid fashion sense that the video rental place had.

Axel twirled said plastic bag, "Rent and the Matrix."

Roxas contemplated the choices and made it seem as though the movies were the only reason that he responded as he did, "Yeah, sure." He stepped aside and motioned for Axel to enter, which he did.

Red spikes swung from side to side, "Geez, do you never turn on lights in here?"

Roxas let out a snort, "Didn't really feel like it." He was temporarily blinded as the redhead flicked the overhead light to life.

"No wonder you're so pale." Axel smirked, the light dancing off of his hair like flames.

Roxas scowled, "And you're not? You're practically albino, and you have no say in-"

"Okay, okay!" Axel fended off the words with his hands, "No quips about appearances for this blondie."

"Damn straight," Roxas growled half-heartedly before snatching the movie bag out of the redhead's grasp. He shuffled through the bag and brought out the two movies and began looking over the covers in earnest.

"So, you sure you don't want to tell me?" Axel pressed once again.

He earned a snort in response, "Quite sure."

"Roxas," The turn in his tone drew the blond's attention. He was quite serious with this one, and the stern green stare enhanced it to the nth degree, "are you sure it's not something I did? Because if you are freaked out by last night, it would be a good thing to know. Right now, I'm just in the dark."

Blue eyes were adverted, "Axel, it's not _you_." It was the _dream_ Axel and Roxas's stupid _brain_. But his statement was half wrong in the fact that it was the real Axel who had started the whole ordeal. Not that he had to know that.

Axel quirked an eyebrow, "And you're not telling me what it actually _was_."

"Nope," Roxas continued to look over the DVD cases without seeing any of the words. "Which of these should we watch?"

Axel let out a sigh with a touch of laughter, "You are wonderful at changing the topic, aren't you, Roxie?"

"It's what I do best. Now, pick one," he held out the movies and Axel plucked the awesome gun and explosion filled one.

"This one'll do." It was snatched from his long fingers and promptly placed the disc into the DVD machine. Roxas threw himself down to sit on the couch and looked up to Axel when he didn't join.

"You coming?" _Shit_ he did _not _just say that. Clean thoughts, Roxas. Clean. Thoughts.

"You're not going to offer me something to drink? It seems to be a tradition with us." Roxas forced down a blush. What was this 'us' nonsense?

Roxas heaved himself from his quite comfortable position and stalked past Axel to the kitchen, "You want something to drink? Eat? Suck? Kick? Crush?" He spat out the last few, throwing open the door to the fridge.

"Roxas? What's up with you?" Now the redhead sounded worried.

"Up with me? What about _you_?" He spun around and slammed the door shut, pointing an accusing finger at the redhead who stood in the kitchen doorway, "You're the one who's all up in my _ass_ about all this crap. Why the hell do you think you can just waltz into my life and question every single little thing that I do?"

Green eyes widened, "Woah, Rox, hold on a-"

"_No_, Axel, I_ won't_. You're confusing the hell out of me and I can't _deal_ with that, especially with you barging in whenever I try to get away to _think_." Fists clenched at his sides, Roxas glared at the floor below his feet, seething.

Black boots came into his line of vision, "What is there to be confused about?" Axel's voice was soft. A small hand shot up and grabbed a handful of his collar and pulled him down to Roxas's eyelevel.

Blue seethed into surprised green, "Everything," Roxas ground out.

Cat-like eyes narrowed slightly, and his voice was even softer, "Nothing specific?"

Roxas gave in. He crushed his lips against Axel's in a fierce, yet brief kiss. A flash of flame and of spice drifted into his senses before he forcefully pulled himself away. "That specific enough for you?" His voice choked on an angry sob as he fought to hold back fiery tears.

A smile stole across the redhead's cheeks, "Does this mean we are friends yet?" His collar was released, but he remained lowered to look into those beautiful and melancholy blue eyes. Roxas let out a sharp sigh and tried to bow his head, but his chin was caught in long warm fingers and his gaze met smiling green. "Hmm?"

"S-sure," Roxas stuttered, and all thoughts left him as lips connected gently with his own.

The contact was over all too soon and warm breath flowed over Roxas's heated cheeks, "Let's go watch the movie."

Roxas's brain turned back on after a long moment, "I thought you wanted something to drink."

"No, I never really did. I just like pressing buttons."

The blond snorted, "Well, you pressed the right ones, so far."

The small hand was taken into a larger one, "Good thing to know."

* * *

**End Notes:** Yeah, I know what you're all thinking. FINALLY!! Oh Em Gee! Squeal!

Yeah. That's what I'm thinking too. Anywho, this isn't the end of the story. I still have some things in mind to torture these two with.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note:** Well, due to my thumb, I missed a few days of good writing time, so this chapter is a bit later than usual. And I was kind of hoping to get further along in the plot with this chapter, but Axel decided to talk a bit too long. Thus, you get a chapter of fluff. Hooray!

**Disclaimer: **I have no idea what the schedule for colleges are, so sorry if it doesn't make any sense as to the logic of how the schedules are set up. Anyhow. And I don't own Axel or Roxas. They are too squeeful to be owned by me.

**Other Junk: **My finger is okay, it just kind of hurts when I use the spacebar. But that shall'nt stop my writing! I'm _invincible_! Sort of. Hey! It's Roxas's chapter! Number 13? Yeah. Random.

* * *

Chapter 13

Roxas didn't see Axel that Sunday. And he practically _died_ inside from the lack of a redhead. Especially after that fateful Saturday. It still sent a buzz through his head at the thought. He had kissed the damned redhead. _He_ had kissed _him_. Roxas had been the one to make the first move. But, then again, hadn't Axel taken him to a rave, given him soup, coffee, a ride home, delivered his bike, watched movies with him… and who had made the first move? The one who had resented everything having to do with the pyro. And yet, it wasn't quite resent. Rather, it was quite the opposite.

And Roxas had admitted that fact rather abruptly to Axel. It may have been anger and confusion induced, but that certainly didn't make it any less true. Roxas was attracted to the guy and perhaps wanted to be more than just friends. Even though they had been 'just friends' for barely two days. And one of those days, Axel had been absent. So, it was more like one.

Roxas hitched his book bag over his shoulder and collected his bike from its corner beside the door. Monday again. But it was one with a pleasant redhead to look forward to. The blond froze as he swung his leg over the top of his bike. He'd never had to face the horror which was PDA first hand before. It was always Olette or Hayner or some other random person making out in the hallways with another random person. Pence had never really… yeah.

And Roxas reeled. Make_out_? They'd barely kissed two times, and his mind was turning to fucking _making out_ with the dude?

No. Fucking. Way. In. Hell.

He pressed the petal to the metal, so to speak, and tore out of his driveway. Roxas really didn't know how he would possibly wrap his mind around his classes with all this crap running through his head. There was no way he was going to let his grades slip because of this over tall jerk, especially since he was on a pretty nice scholarship for it. No use in wasting money, even if it wasn't yours, right? Especially since it was from people who felt sorry for orphans. It was about the only perk imaginable for his particular disposition.

He made it to campus in his usual fifteen minutes and was met by a rather unusual sight. The parking lot was _empty_. It was just eerie. Here he was, on a Monday, and everyone was late to class? Scratch that, there were a grand total of five cars. Roxas briefly wondered if he had missed daylight savings time. He rode onto campus and parked his bike at a very empty bike rack.

He walked to the quad, usually bustling with students at this hour. It was deserted.

Roxas picked to do the first thing that came into his head: call Axel.

The ring was slightly fuzzy as the blond had his spiffy silver phone crushed to the side of his head, his unoccupied hand around him to retain some sort of body heat from the morning chill. It rang four times before a muffled click issued from the earpiece.

A very disgruntled and quite discombobulated mumble-grunt hybrid came from the redhead.

Roxas took this as a 'goodmorning, sunshine' and continued, "Hey, Axel. Um, why is nobody here?"

It took a moment for Axel to respond, "And 'here' would be…?"

"School. You know, the place where-"

He was rudely interrupted by a light and groggy chuckle, "Rox, check your calendar."

Roxas scowled into the receiver, "I did and it's-"

"Spring break," there was a wide yawn, then, "I'm going back to sleep, if you don't mind." There was a rustle of sheets and a distinct sound of a head hitting a pillow. Or a bowling ball. Same difference.

Roxas let out a sigh. Wow, how stupid can one person possibly be? He waited for the click that signified Axel snapping his cell phone shut, but it never did shut.

"Hey Rox, you still there?" A slightly clearer voice came through to Roxas's ear.

"I am if you are," Roxas massaged the bridge of his nose. Great, now Axel thought he was a forgetful dunce.

"Good. Stay where you are. I'll be there in ten." That was when the phone snapped shut and the call was canceled. Roxas was rooted to the ground and not even Candy Mountain could have moved him from that spot.

It was about fifteen minutes of agonizing waiting in the freezing morning until long, paced footfalls fell to Roxas's ears. He had been quietly contemplating the day ahead intermittently with what had occurred two days before. And as the redhead approached, the blond got quite angry over one single fact.

"Axel, you asshole, you didn't _call me_," he seethed, but did not daunt Axel in the slightest.

The redhead simply grinned, "Good morning to you too, darling. And, was I supposed to?"

Roxas stuttered quite against his will as Axel towered over him, "It- it would have been nice of you to. Being my _friend_ and all," he added sharply, trying his best to look intimidating, but still not affecting Axel as he would have liked. _Cower_, damn you!

Axel's smirk grew at Roxas's struggle, "Friend. Is that what we are? After all this time?" He leaned down just a little bit closer to the fuming college freshman.

Blue eyes narrowed, "Yes, Axel. We are friends. After less than a week. But being friends means that you don't go and _forget_ about me." He unconsciously leaned away, but ultimately failed as he was drawn into long, lanky arms and held close.

"I do believe I was missed," Axel looked down at a quite suddenly numbed Roxas.

Said blond kept his palms on the black coat-clad chest, keeping his gaze carefully to the side, on a particularly boring bush, "As if, dumbass."

Axel chuckled, the chest vibrating under Roxas's hands, "Wanna go on a date, my new best friend?"

"Is it called a date when you are friends?" Roxas mumbled his question, melting into the embrace against his brain's will.

"Hmm," Axel quirked his head to the side, "If that is just what we are, then it should be called an outing, or just 'hanging out.' Whatever floats your boat."

Roxas lifted his head to glare at Axel, "It _is_ all we are."

Axel smirked, "Your face seems to suggest otherwise."

Blue eyes widened, "My face…?" He pulled away, reddening instantly. Axel took his window of opportunity and swooped down and caught Roxas's lips with his own. _Three_. The gentleness startled Roxas slightly, but he didn't resist to the touch. Small hands curled into the thick black fabric of Axel's coat and arms found their way around Roxas's waist, pulling him just a bit closer.

Axel pulled away from Roxas's lips after a moment, loving green meeting blond-lashed lids, "That and the fact that you just kissed me back."

Blue eyes shot open, cheeks flushing deeper than before and Roxas turned his head away in haste, "That could have been an automatic reflex."

Axel let out a low giggle, "You're so cute when you are in denial."

Roxas turned back to him, seething, "I am _not_ cute."

The redhead's expression brightened, "And there it is again! You, Roxas, are a delight to behold."

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Great, now can you let go? I feel awkward standing in the empty quad like this." Meaning Axel's arms about him and his own hands on the chest before him.

"Not too keen on coming out of the closet to the empty school?" Roxas could have sworn he saw a glimmer in Axel's eye. A glimmer of what, he couldn't quite decipher.

"Whoever said there was a closet?" A smile stole across Roxas's cheeks.

"Yeah. No way are you getting away with the whole 'I'm not gay' thing." His thumb spun circles into the soft flesh of the blond's sides, causing a chill to run down the latter's spine. "Might I remind you of Saturday once again?"

Roxas recovered from the sensation of every single one of his hairs springing to life, "Yeah, yeah. Shut up, Ax."

Axel rocked them both from side to side, Roxas comfortably still in his embrace, "Can't stay in denial forever, Roxie."

Roxas smirked, but trained his eyes on the air just _beside _Axel's head, "But I can try."

Axel snorted softly, "Good luck with that. You'll have _me_ whipping your ass to get you to come out and I am certain that I could recruit Demyx to join me. Maybe even his emo boyfriend." There was that thumb again._Man_ that was distracting.

The blond buried his face into Axel's chest, letting out a disheartened muffled mumble of. "Oh goodie."

Axel's grin wasn't planning on leaving his face anytime soon, "So, how about that date?"

Roxas scoffed, "You mean the 'hanging out'?" He looked up into green, "I dunno. Whatever you want to do. We've got the whole week."

Cat-like eyes widened, "A week long date? Sounds intense. We could have sleepovers and you can wear your adorable banana pajamas again."

The grin gave way to a pout, "They're ice cream sundae pajamas, for your information."

"Oh, that makes _all_ the difference." Axel chuckled, "How about we go downtown? We could get ice cream and pretzels and cotton candy and snazzy crap like that. Then we can frolic on the beach and run off into the sunset."

This got an amused snort in response, "When did you become such a romantic?"

Foreheads connected and the green was so _intense_ and _close _at that moment, "It may have a little to do with the adorable – not _cute_ – blond in my arms."

Roxas flushed pink, "Downtown. Sounds great."

000

They ended up seeing a movie – big surprise there – at the fancy old theatre downtown. Sometime through the movie, Axel had caught Roxas's hand in his own and the blond was so absorbed in the movie – Juno, it was – that he didn't quite realize that his hand had been taken captive until halfway through the credits.

Axel twirled his finger in the semi-dark theatre to the music playing during the credits when Roxas actually noticed. But Axel didn't notice that Roxas had finally noticed that he had held his hand for a good part of the movie, and decided to rattle on. "You know, my dad would have said something like 'Well, I guess we don't have to have _that_ talk' if I hadn't come out of the closet. But then again, he probably _would_ still say that. The dork. It probably still hasn't clicked with him that guys can't…" He glanced over at Roxas and was met with wide blue eyes, bright even in the low light, "Have… this is a bad conversation, isn't it?" Roxas remained silent and Axel looked up, presumably at his forehead, "Bad brain-mouth filter. Turn back on, will you?" He flashed a grin at Roxas, who was still utterly dumbfounded. In seeing the blank wide stare, Axel gave his clutched hand a slight shake, "Dear me, did I break my Roxie?"

That was when the brain hidden beneath wild blond spikes kicked back into gear, "How long have you been holding my hand?" He apparently hadn't heard a single thing that the redhead had spewed out.

A weary grin replaced his cocky smirk, "A while now?" His grip loosened, "Is it too much for you?" It was clutched back by Roxas.

"No," he said hurriedly, afraid to let the nice contact leave, but flushing at his haste, "It's fine."

White teeth were flashed in a wide smile, "Want to get some ice cream?"

"But it's freezing outside," Roxas replied, slightly perturbed by the grin that worked its way unconsciously across his face.

Axel knocked his forehead gently across Roxas's, "I'll keep you warm, Rox."

The blond was positively _giddy _on the inside and tried his best not to squirm in anticipation at the thought of Axel's arm about his shoulder and the warmth of being pressed against his side… so close to his heart, "Ice cream. Sure."

* * *

**End Notes:**Yay for fluff. Reviews are wonderful. And so are you. So review and be even more wonderfuller! And yes, I am on a caffeine high right now.

PS: Why the hell does chapter 4 have at least 100 more views than any other chapter (besides chapter 1)? It really makes no sense to me. Unless people enjoy that chapter enough to read it multiple times. But _really_. It's confusing the hell out of me.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Notes:** Bit longer chapter than usual. It's technically been three days, right? Uhm. Enjoy? More fluff, but also plot. Whoopie scadoo! Oh, and the 'free prize' conversation between Axel and Roxas was actually based on a conversation that I had with my mom.

**Disclaimer: **Yeah. I don't own Cocoa Puffs. Or these dudes. Or anything, really. Just my own words that I think are decent enough for other people to read.

**Other Junk:** Chapter 14 already? Shit, I never expected this thing to be that long. I thought it would be something like _five_ chapters. Well, that just shows how well I plan out stories in my head, huh?

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Chapter 14

So, they got ice cream. Sea salt ice cream, to be exact.

"I have no idea why they call it ice cream when these are obviously popsicles," Axel rambled on, as he was prone to doing, waving his frozen treat before him to emphasize his point, what little of it he possessed. He stole a glance and a grin at the blond striding beside him. They hadn't stopped holding hands since Axel had snuck in and clasped Roxas's. Not that Roxas minded any.

Said blond was happily eating away at his blue ice cream with a look of perfect content on his face. And just a little bit of blue on the corner of his mouth. A wicked grin crossed Axel's features before he leaned down those few precious inches – more than a few, actually – and kissed away the offending salty-sweet blue from the corner of Roxas's lip.

Blue eyes flew open and a most adorable noise of surprise made its way out of his mouth as the brief, gentle contact was removed. He was met by Axel's mirthful face and he regained his voice, "PDA, much?"

"Couldn't resist, Roxie," Axel twittered, straightening up and stuffing his popsicle back in his mouth to keep himself from embarrassing the blond even more. Roxas gave a half-hearted scowl, mostly to keep from grinning goofily, and copied the redhead's action. Their conversation continued with a series of hums and grunts, as their mouths were occupied by their cold treats.

The redhead pointed into a thrift store, supposedly at a hideous purple gown, and Roxas replied with an amused hum. A few more exchanges were made between the pair, before Axel hummed questioningly, Roxas grunting his affirmation shortly afterward.

"Ha!" Axel had removed his ice cream, "You just agreed that we are now more than friends."

Roxas scoffed, his own popsicle in his hand once again, "Did not! You asked me if I was having a good time." Sea salt ice cream was teased under his nose.

"Oh contraire, you didn't see me raise my eyebrows suggestively."

"I was busy looking across the street at the sandwich place that you pointed out because you want lunch," Roxas pointed out.

"The sandwich place? I was pointing to the clothes store where I got some of my favorite shirts," apparently the confusion was amusing the hell out of Axel.

"You need to be clearer with your communication," Roxas turned his head away smugly, replacing his ice cream into its proper spot before it started to melt all over his hand. Axel simply laughed quietly before biting off the corner of his own popsicle. They kept on walking around downtown aimlessly, their clasped hands swinging nonchalantly between them.

It was probably the longest time they had been together without any talking going on, besides when they were watching movies, but even then Axel insisted on jabbering on about _something_. Each was perfectly content with just walking beside each other, hand-in-hand.

Eventually, after a slight scuffle with trying to get ice cream on each other's noses, they finished said treat and found their way back to Axel's car and from there, to Axel's apartment.

The redhead stopped Roxas before the iron-gated door and spun on his heel, a wide smirk on his face, earning a confused look from our favorite blond, "You got that apartment number memorized?"

Roxas grinned slyly, "Why should I? I don't see any smoke."

"Just because there isn't smoke doesn't mean there isn't a fire," Axel declared, "So, you got it memorized, or what?"

The blond snorted, "It's 8A."

Axel clasped his hands together in delight, "Oh, you _do_ care!"

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Yeah, open the door, dumbass."

Axel turned to the door and shuffled through his wad of keys, but paused when he remembered something, "Hey, Rox. Your bike is still at school."

The realization dawned on Roxas as Axel had said it, "Shit, you're right. Oh well, it's locked up. I'll just get it later." The door creaked open and, being the gentleman he was, Axel held it open for his friend.

"After you, Señorita banana pants." The grin was dazzling.

"_Sundae_ pants," Roxas shoved a finger in Axel's face pointedly, "As if_you_ don't have embarrassing pajamas."

"They have little campfires on them."

Roxas let out a short bark of laughter, "_Really_?"

Axel snickered, "No." He leaned in close to Roxas's ear, "I sleep in the _nude_." Roxas was reduced to a sputtering and hyperventilating soup before he realized that Axel, that bastard, was laughing his ass off. "Kidding, kidding! God, Rox, you should see your face!" This got him a swift punch to his arm from the short blond.

"Axel, you- you!"

"Me, me, what?" He caught Roxas's shoulder to steady himself after his laughing fit.

"You have a wicked sense of humor," as hard as he tried, Roxas couldn't stop a stupid grin from infecting his cheeks. He shoved the hand from his shoulder and started up the paint-peeling stairs, the redhead close behind.

The door was opened and the redhead and blond spilled in. Roxas made himself at home and sat himself heavily onto the comfy couch, head hanging over the back, staring at the ceiling. Said ceiling brightened as the apartment renter flicked on a few lights.

Brilliant red was suddenly in his vision and soft lips against his own. A tongue swept his bottom lip without seeking entrance, and Axel pulled away, leaning on the couch against his crossed arms to hover beside Roxas's head.

He hummed his content, "You taste sweet."

Roxas smirked, "You're spicy."

Thin eyebrows shot up, "How so? I had the same ice cream as you."

The blond shrugged, "Dunno. You just have a certain spice to you." Yeah, he tasted the sea salt ice cream, but he had noticed the spice previously. Small details that simply _wouldn't_ leave his brain _alone_.

Axel gave a mischievous grin, "That's because I'm _hot_, and you _know_ it."

Roxas blushed but didn't argue, adverting his eyes slightly, "Vain bastard." He paused and swiveled his eyes back to green, "What do we do now?" He was instantly sorry that he had returned the gaze.

Axel's tone was overly hopeful, "Make out?"

Roxas let out a sputtering laugh, "Is that what friends do?"

"Yes?" Bright green eyes moved nearer as the redhead leaned closer.

Roxas lowered his eyelids almost suggestively – emphasis on the _almost_ – lips dangerously close to Axel's, "I think not." He grinned wickedly and shoved Axel's face away with his palm.

Dejected, Axel maintained the small distance that Roxas had managed to push him to, "Oh, that _hurt_, Rox. You really know how to turn a guy down." But that still didn't wipe the silly grin off of his face.

"Not that I've had much practice," Roxas rolled his eyes, sporting a small smile.

Green eyes widened, "Is Roxas used to flaunting himself around?"

Roxas flushed, narrowing blue eyes, "_No_. Just about the opposite, thank you very much."

Axel giggled girlishly at that, "Oh, I love it when you're like that."

A blond eyebrow was quirked, "Like what?" Didn't Axel like it whenever Roxas did basically _anything_?

"All ticked off like that. It's fucking adorable." White teeth were flashed.

Roxas grinned wickedly, crossing his ankle over his knee, "Remind me to do that more often."

Axel leaned in closer once again, "Gladly." And there was that gentle kiss once again. Roxas had lost count of how many that was.

Roxas pulled away reluctantly, eyelids lowered ever so slightly and brain buzzing with the sensation of lips against his own, "You never answered my question."

"Which one?" Axel asked quietly, warm breath flowing seductively over Roxas's cheeks.

"The one about what the hell we are going to do." He raised his index finger and pointed it in the redhead's face, "And _don't_ suggest making out again. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of things in your kitchen that I could maim you with."

Axel smirked, "Oh, feisty," he cupped his chin in his palm and leaned against his elbow, twirling his free hand in the air, "Well, we do have a tradition of offering each other drinks and watching movies, but I think we have exhausted that by now."

"But I thought you wanted to educate me in the cinema arts," Roxas reminded his friend.

Axel scoffed at that, "It's vacation. No learning during breaks."

Roxas hummed thoughtfully, "Then what else could we do?"

"Not making out?" He earned a blank stare from Roxas, "Right. We could… go to your house?"

Roxas grinned, "What do I have at my house that you don't have here?"

Axel shrugged a shoulder, "I dunno. It's prettier. And you actually have food there. I'm fresh out." Apparently he hadn't gone to the store in some days, and Roxas just so happened to have plenty of food left over from his most recent excursion.

"So, you want to steal my food for lunch? Sure, let's go."

Axel turned pensive, glancing at the clock on the wall, "Though, I'll only be able to stay for an hour or so. I've got work today, sadly." He turned back to crystal blue eyes fondly, "But then again, I _could_ call in sick."

Roxas's grin turned into a smirk, "I'm flattered that you would sacrifice for me like that." Axel beamed, "But I can't allow you to get yourself into trouble on my account." The beam faltered, "You're going to work, Axel."

Axel pouted, "Aw, you're no fun, Roxie."

Blue eyes were rolled, "I try my best." He heaved himself off of the couch and straightened out his shirt as he came up, as it gave away just a sliver of creamy white midriff. The precious exposure hadn't gone unnoticed by a certain redhead before it was covered.

Axel laughed quietly, shaking his head and straightening up. Roxas made his way around the couch and took the pyro's elbow in his own, receiving a grand smile from Axel, who was forced to make one of his obscene comments, "Am I escorting m'lady home?"

Roxas shot him a look of pure ice, "Refer to me as a lady again, and I swear I will be laughing at your premature funeral."

Red spikes wagged back and forth and shoulders shook in silent laughter, "Couldn't resist, darling."

The ice melted and was replaced by a grin, "Dumbass," Roxas punched Axel's shoulder once more, "Let's go."

000

Axel was talking animatedly, as usual. All the way to Roxas's house.

"What is it about the little prizes in Cracker Jack? I mean, is the caramel popcorn with random nuts really that great? There is something about getting a free toy in something you buy to _eat_. It's the same thing with the free prize in cereal. Why the hell do they even say that it is a _free_ prize? You obviously pay for it when you buy the box. It goes along with the 'new and improved' signs. If it is new, then there shouldn't be something that was improved upon, since it is _new_ and thus a fresh idea. It's the ultimate oxymoron. But there is something about seeing a 'Free Prize' label on the outside of a box. Really, is there anyone alive who hasn't gotten a box of cereal just for the sake of the prize?"

The blond continued the redhead's stream of voiced thought, "And the first thing you do when you get home is dump out all the corn flakes into a huge bowl to_get_ the prize?" Roxas shook his head, remembering when he had done just that with Sora, his partner in crime, all those years ago.

"Hell yeah! What prize do you remember looking for?" He looked down to the smiling blond linked to his elbow.

"I dunno. Probably some dinosaur ring. I _loved_ dinosaurs when I was little."

"You mean you don't remember what it was? Aw _man_. Mine was this wicked spoon that had these double scoopers that you use like scissors, except it was a_fucking double-scooper spoon_. It was like eating with small cheapie plastic salad tongs. Didn't hold the milk that well, though. But the cereal was chocolate Cocoa Puffs. I swear, that wacky bird scared the shit out of me. That box seriously was sitting in the cupboard for a month before my mom finally threw them away, but not before she made me eat a bowl. But they were stale by then. Never ate the things again."

Roxas laughed, rich and sweet to Axel's ears, "You must have been a horrible child, what with your cereal wasting and pyro habits."

Axel laughed along, "Hey, it wasn't _my_ fault that I was fascinated by the stove burners. I just loved the way the matches burst into flame when I put them in there. But my parents only decided to put those child safety locks on the burners _after_ I lined up a whole bunch of matches around the rim of the burner and then lit it. _Man_ that was a wicked explosion."

Roxas snorted, "You horrible child! Now I feel sorry for your parents. _I _wouldn't want to have a kid like you. That would be _hell_."

"And how about a _boyfriend_?" Axel slyly put in, leaning down just a bit closer to Roxas.

"Now, that would be fi- hey! Don't catch me off-guard like that!" Roxas sputtered and Axel let out a shout of triumph.

"Aha! I almost got you!" He caught Roxas in a one-handed noogie.

"You fucking _sneak_. Don't get ahead of yourself or you might find that one morning you are left with one less limb than-" _Damn_ these were getting old. Mutilate this, pulp that, amputate, castrate…

"Oh bah, threaten me all you want; you _know_ you want me." To emphasize his point, Axel planted a kiss onto the blond's cheek and was promptly shoved away.

"As if," Roxas stated, but the grin gave him away. They fell into a compatible silence before it was broken by a wide yawn from the redhead. Roxas gave him an amused side glance, "You miss out on some of your beauty sleep last night?"

Axel chuckled through his yawn, "You're the one who got me up four hours after I went to sleep." Long fingers swept through red spikes.

Roxas was highly amused, "Axel, I got you up at _eight_. It's a perfectly reasonable time to get up."

Green eyes widened and turned to blue, "Reasonable? Rox, reasonable for me is around_ eleven_."

"Axel, you are insane," Roxas stated blandly, and believed it every bit.

"I'm a night lurker," a wicked grin spread across the redhead's face. They lapsed into quiet laughter, a distant conversation not reaching their ears as they were absorbed completely into each other's attention. They were before Roxas's house before they knew it and a familiar voice broke through their bliss.

"Hey, guys, he's back!" Roxas's bubble popped. He _knew_ that voice. Quite well, actually, as it belonged to the short and stout burnet who happened to be attending Radiant Garden University. The one who hadn't sent a postcard or anything like that? He looked up and froze, but was pulled on by Axel.

"Friends of yours?" Axel was sporting a huge grin.

Roxas remained in shocked silence. Since when were Hayner, Pence, and Olette coming home for spring break? And what the hell were they doing on his front porch?

The tall blond crossed his arms across his chest and stood like he was all-that, "About time, Roxas." His hard, scrutinizing eye fell to the pair's linked arms and Roxas realized those facts and pulled his arm away hastily.

Olette smiled sweetly at her friend, "We tried your cell but you didn't answer, and you weren't home, either." Roxas had left his cell phone on silent for the movie and hadn't had a chance to turn it back on since. It wasn't like he was used to getting frequent calls.

Pence was happy-go-lucky, as usual, "We've been here for a while now."

Roxas remained numb, and Axel commented, because he simply _had _to, "Aw, now that's devotion."

Hayner narrowed his eyes, arms still crossed, "Who is this cooc?"

Axel, grin still broad, linked their elbows again, "We're _friends_, right Roxie?"

Roxas's eyes were still wide as saucers and he remained silent, eyes blank and unseeing.

Pence let out a jolly laugh and poked Roxas's temple, "I think you broke him."

That was when the blond snapped out of it. He shoved Axel away, "Friends! Yes, Axel, my_ friend_." He gave a strained smile, trying his best to cover his haste to get away from any physical contact with the redhead. No matter how much he would have wanted it to continue if he were in any other situation.

Hayner continued to leer and jabbed Roxas in the chest, "You, my house, Six o-clock."

Axel brightened, apparently non-perturbed by seeing Roxas's friends or by either blonds' tension, "Party? Can I come?"

Hayner continued to scrutinize and Roxas swung his eyes to the side to catch green, "Um, I'll see you later, Axel."

He could have sworn that the infallible spikes drooped at that, "Yeah, sure." Finally taking the hint, he spun on his heel and gave Roxas's hair one last ruffle before making a quick exit. The blond's heart went with Axel as the slender back retreated down the block, red hair waving in the wind and hands deep in his coat pockets. It was the very image of defeat and it tore at every string in Roxas's chest.

_Damn_ he was getting in deep.

* * *

**End Notes:** I must admit that I am guilty of the entirety of Axel's cereal experience. Man, I love putting personal experiences into this thing.

And I challenge all you peeps who are watching this/have favorited it and haven't reviewed yet to review! I swear that I am not a scary person, and I love reviews! They are seriously awesome ego boosters. So do your writer a favor and boost some ego today. Your donation will go to a good cause.

Plus! You can be added to the circle of peeps that I LURVE! Not that I don't love you now. But… whatever. Review, por favor!


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note:** Has it been 3 days yet? Yes? No? I really don't care, I'm posting it anyway. Oh, guess what? I got a cold! But I have no Axel to make me all better! Boo hoo. So I've been making my _own_ coffee and wearing my _own_ scarves. Humph.

And for some reason FF hates me and its been shoving random italicized words together with the non-italicized word beside it. But I'm too lazy to go back and fix it. And I have to go study for my Spanish test.

**Disclaimer: **The usual.

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Chapter 15

Roxas was overcome by a sudden numbness as the bent and drawn redhead walked away. He reached the curb and their gazes met for the briefest of moments.

Indignant, vulnerable, and the one that really got to Roxas: hurt.

Oh _shit_, what did he just _do_?

He was crushed by slim arms and torn away from his blank, wide-eyed stare by an ever-perky petite brunette, "It's so great to see you again, Roxas! How has college been serving you since winter break?" He was being crushed by… boobs? What the hell do you need _those_ for? Roxas'd prefer something a bit different… like what he had been leaned against just that morning. Um, _right_. This was _Olette_. His friend since before he could remember. Hadn't seen her for some time. Wait, winter break? Maybe it hadn't been too many months since they had had a group reunion.

Roxas gained half of his brain back, "Pretty good. Just… going smoothly." Besides that one redhead. You know, the one who looks like a clown with an extremely sexy makeover? Yeah, that one. Roxas was released by Olette's death grip and made his way past Hayner and Pence to his front door. Had they planned to get together for spring break? Apparently so. He shuffled around in his bag for the key and opened his front door, turning on lights as he walked in. His friends followed.

Olette giggled, walking past Roxas as he dumped his schoolbag on the stairs, "You completely forgot that we were coming back for spring break, didn't you?" She plopped down on the blond's couch, right where Axel had seated himself the first time he had visited.

Roxas forced a grin, following Olette to the den and taking up his seat in the rocking chair. He scratched guiltily behind head, "I actually found out that it was spring break this morning. It was interesting going to an empty campus."And meeting up with Axel, who kissed him and went on a not-date with him and-

Pence emerged from the kitchen with a can of soda in hand, "Didn't you get our emails?"

"Uh…" Wow, his friends really knew how to put the guilt on. Truthfully, he hadn't 'found the time' to check his email since he had sent out his last message at the coffee shop. "Haven't had the chance." Due to the fact that Axel had taken up most of his free time. Not that his friends really had to _know_ that.

Hayner leaned against the wall beside the couch, eyes narrowed, "Oh really?" Shit, that dude had always had a knack for picking out whenever Roxas was being less than truthful. But it was just a little _white_ lie.

Roxas was wary of the intense look, "Yes, really."

Olette shoved Hayner playfully from her perch on the couch, laughter in her green eyes – not nearly as bright as Axel, by the way – and continued to giggle lightly, "Oh, lighten up, mister dramatic. This is supposed to be a grand happy reunion and you're putting a major damper on it." It was funny, the two of them were such complete opposites that they complimented one another perfectly. It was a wonder they hadn't dated during high school. Lord knows they dated basically everyone else outside their little group.

Pence was as happy as ever and he sat on the couch beside the excitable brunette, "So Roxas, what have you been up to?"

Besides hanging out with Axel? "Not much, really. Just keeping up with my schoolwork. How is Radiant Garden University going for you?"

Pence took a swig of his soda before laughing heartily, "It's been kicking my butt, but it's awesome. Olette got a super scholarship, though."

Olette blushed sweetly, "It only pays for my room and board, but…"

Roxas smiled, genuine this time, "That's awesome 'Lette."

They continued exchanging stories of who did what since their last break, any tension existing between Roxas and Hayner disappearing until further notice.

000

That further notice just so happened to be right when the taller blond opened the door on the shorter blond at exactly 6:02. He was met by a surprising smile. Now, he certainly didn't expect _that_ to happen.

"Hey, Roxas!" The hazel-eyed blond held out his hand, which was clasped by our favorite blond with a surprised grin.

"Hello again," Roxas nodded and stepped into his best friend's house without invitation. Not that he really needed one, anyway. He was overcome by a major déjà vu, as the pair had performed this very ceremony countless times in the past. It was odd, actually going inside the house after the months since they had last seen each other, in which Roxas had passed by on his bike – which he had retrieved from the college prior to his visit – every day on his way to the God-forsaken torture chamber… where he had met Axel.

After saying a quick hello to Hayner's parents, the two blonds made their way to the basement, where the taller blond resided. Roxas remembered when his friend had decided one day in their sophomore year that he didn't want to be in his tiny room upstairs and had all of his friends help move him down to 'The Cave' as he preferred to call it.

The brick walls had been painted – by Hayner himself – a horrible rendition of green and brown camouflage when he had gone through his army-and-guns phase. To be honest, it looked more like a war bunker than a bedroom, complete with a gas mask. It was just missing the Russian-English dictionary and the cans of tuna fish.

Roxas was all too used to the room and flopped himself down in the bean-bag chair – also camo – as Hayner dumped himself on the edge of his bed (camo also). Seriously, if camouflage produced the same effects as strobe lights, any sane person would have a series of epileptic seizures if they ever set foot in that cavern. Axel would probably be one of those who was immune. _Ack_, that freaking redhead butting his way into his head again!

"So, you seemed like you wanted to talk to me about something," Roxas inquired as lightly as he could. Somehow, he was set at ease in the familiar surroundings, as opposed to the unknown territory he had been venturing over the past week. It felt nice to be back where they once had been before the call for a higher education had split them apart. It was nice to have his best friend back.

"About _everything_, you mean. We haven't seen each other for months and that's not cool. What have you been up to, man?" Apparently Hayner didn't want to start up on the issue he had going around in his brain all through the afternoon just yet. Roxas was just peachy with that. He just wanted his best friend back.

Roxas let out a cheery laugh, "Well, I went to the store and bought some Top Ramen on Saturday. And I went to school. Oh, and I just got over a bitch of a cold. Took like, four days to get better and I still have a little cough. I don't even want to know how many tissues I went through." All but that one that Axel had written his number on. "How about you? Been partying your brains out like you said you would?"

Hayner snorted, "Yeah, for like, the first two days after break. Then I was hit by a fucking huge pile of essays when I had a hangover. It was Hell." They continued on as they once had, all that time ago, which really felt longer than it actually was. Any acrimony Roxas once held towards his best friend for not contacting him was appeased by the simple, light-hearted conversation. Or at least abated for the time being.

Eventually, Hayner's mom called them up for dinner and it was as if Hayner had never left. The taller blond's parents had been like a second pair for Roxas while he was growing up, and Hayner his brother. They ate dinner with much talk and mirth and both blonds helped clean up.

It was so perfect. Like nothing had changed. And then life came to bite Roxas in the butt, as it was prone to doing.

"So, what's up with this Axel person?" A jolt of acidity was added in with Hayner's question. They were back in his cave/bunker in the same places that they had taken up before.

Roxas choked on his own air and froze, silly grin wiping instantly from his face. _Shit_, so he really did want to talk about that. "What about him?" He asked carefully, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Hazel narrowed equally, "You were hanging off of him like-"

"A friend?" Roxas interjected rigidly, suspicion behind his words. Where the hell had_this_ mood swing come from? "Is that what you were all worked up about? I don't see what the big deal is." Unless he actually had _seen_ the pair of them together somewhere… like when the redhead had licked the blue from his ice cream off of his nose after their battle, or when he had pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"I don't see how all of us could be so easily _replaced_," Hayner sneered. Well, at least this wasn't about not telling them that he was coming out of the closet. Not that there was a clo- oh what the hell, who was he kidding?

Roxas shot him a leer, "Yeah, because you were being _such_ a wonderful friend when you didn't contact me since you last left. And Axel isn't_replacing_ you, dipwad." He is taking a completely separate position that has been vacant for quite some time. Erm, or he was just… a friend. Yeah, right.

"Then what is he doing, Roxas?" Hazel eyes were scathing, digging in just a bit too deep.

"He's _not replacing you_."

"Right," Hayner rolled his eyes at Roxas, who glared ice at him.

"I didn't know I had to get permission from my best friend to expand my own circle of friends." This made Hayner pause. But he went right on.

"What's he got that's so great?"

One, he's gay, like Roxas. Two, he's fucking _hot_. Three, he's a freaking lot of fun to be with. He's a great dancer and an even more awesome kisser, for four and five. As for six… "Well, he doesn't live over five hundred miles away from here," Did Roxas mention his hotness? "And he knows how to pick up his _phone_ and _talk_ to the person on the other end." Roxas would've said something about emailing too, but he actually didn't know the redhead's email and thus couldn't use that against Hayner.

"You didn't try to call, either," Hayner pointed out.

"I did _so _try. I tried like, every week, but _someone_ was always _gone_," Roxas ground out. A sly grin crossed Hayner's lips. Blue eyes widened and shut just in time for a pillow to smack him full on in the face. Roxas pulled the offending pillow off of his head, "What the hell, Hay-" A second pillow cut him off.

A wicked laugh came from the bed, "I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Roxas bit, savagely throwing one of the pillows back at his friend who, apparently, had grown a habit of dramatic mood swings.

It missed his head and hit the brick wall behind him. _Damn_. "You're lonely without me," a wide grin replaced his scowl.

"Is that what this is all about? Your whole inquisition was to find out if I was lonely or not? Do you even care about the whole Axel thing?" An Axel thing, not his thing with Axel. Careful choice of wording, Rox.

"Of course I care about that. I was just digging to find what was underneath all that. Your email was like a plead for help, it was so pathetic." He was laughing, the bastard.

"Hayner, you're an ass." Roxas stated blandly. So he really hadn't meant it? The whole Axel thing had just been a ploy to make him come out with the fact that he missed his best friend? Wow, Hayner could be ridiculous at times. At least he wasn't going to go questioning his sexuality or something. But he did seem to not like the redhead, for whatever reason.

"I wear that title with pride," his goofy toothy smile was cut off by a precisely thrown pillow to his head. Score one for sundae pants.

The whole ordeal ended them in a grand pillow fight, which in turn turned into a feet-tickling fight, and then a nose and ear yanking fight. Roxas would later look back on it and roll his eyes at how juvenile they had acted, but he wouldn't deny that it had been a hell of a lot of fun.

Roxas was in his 'happy bubble' as he rode his bike home from Hayner's house. He had forgotten how much fun his best friend could be. They were going to hang out the next day with Pence and Olette and it would be just like old times. Their usual spot had taken a beating from their neglect, but with a bit of time, they were going to make it inhabitable again. They had the whole week to hang out and-

Axel.

Indignant, vulnerable, hurt.

Happy bubble gone.

Roxas's heart raced. How had he forgotten? He was having such a good time with his friends and then Hayner… how _had_ he forgotten?

He pulled up to his porch and got through the front door, bike and all, before grabbing his schoolbag and scuttling up to his room. He fished around for his cell phone at the bottom of the bag and pulled it out, flipping it open expertly.

No new messages. No missed calls.

The number for the redhead's cell was punched in, already memorized, and the phone was crushed against the wild yellow-spiked head.

It rang.

Once.

Twice.

A distant click, then, "Yeah?"

"Axel?" The tone in which he had spoken caught Roxas. Since when had the redhead been so cold? "Hey, sorry I didn't call you before, I-"

"Sorry," the redhead ground out, pausing just a moment before speaking once again, voice just as cold as before, "Wrong number." _Click_.

Blue eyes widened.

_Shit_.

* * *

**End Notes: **Oh dear, I feel evil now.

On a happier note, I'm almost at 200 reviews. 200! What the hell, people? I've been on here for what, 2 months? And 200 already?! I fucking love you people.

I honestly started to write this thing for my own enjoyment and I never planned on showing it to anyone. But now it's like, WOAH! There's actually people who will read it! So now I'm writing it for all you peeps' enjoyment as well as my own. It's win-win!


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note:** This chapter was both heaven and hell to write. But I think the outcome is… adequate. I hope you agree. It makes me smile.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Pop Rocks, Atomic Fireballs, Axel, Roxas, or freaking anyone else in this darn thing.

**Other Junk: **I really don't like Hayner Pence and Olette very much. Don't know why.

* * *

Chapter 16

Roxas couldn't sleep that night. Not that it was much of a surprise. He was furious with the world, bent and twisted as it was. But mostly he was furious with himself. He had fully deserved Axel shunning him as he had. Hell, he had done it to the redhead before. But had he made Axel feel as shitty as he was feeling right then?

Roxas curled into a miserable ball on his tousled bed in a deserted house, the silence pressing down upon him. The happy pajama bottoms glared at him in the dark, mocking him as the redhead loved to do. And he remembered the sincere looks from those green eyes.

Pure adoration.

Axel really cared for the blond. So, how had Roxas made it up to him? By stealing a few laughs, a few kisses, and by ditching him right in front of his friends? If that didn't make him feel as though he had used Axel, Roxas didn't know what the hell else he could have done. But there was one thing that he could think to do to make it all work out. The only thing was, it scared the shit out of him to even think of it.

How would his friends of almost nineteen years take to him suddenly changing from possibly liking girls to being a man-loving whore? Because that was definitely what Roxas thought people would think of him if he came out of the closet. A lying man-fucker, son of a bitch.

Roxas shivered from the night chill and pulled the blanket up to his chin, letting out a miserable cough that turned into a whimper. He had really screwed up this time and backing out didn't seem like an option.

Axel: angry, hurt, and probably feeling just as shitty as he was right then. No, backing out was definitely not an option.

It was funny, in the sardonic sense, that such a small thing would tear him apart so easily. Those three simple words, repeated back at him. But, as three word phrases go, it wasn't the worst. 'I hate you' is one, or even better, 'I am pregnant.' Those ones really stuck.

'I love you.'

The small space in his ribcage and below his lungs pulsed and twisted. Yeah, that was another one. A very good other one. Unless the one who heard it was still in the fucking closet and was too fucking scared to come the fuck out. Damn, this was hard to do.

Roxas had hoped that Axel would call back, but knew that it would have been rather improbable. He could just live in his own dream world in which Axel would call him back and pronounce his undying love, along with forgiveness for any and all future actions, and the world would barf rainbows and accept homosexual people. Yeah, not going to happen, Rox.

But then, why would his friends reject him? They had known Roxas longer than anyone and would be the most forgiving in his self-discovery. Then why couldn't he stop shaking from fear?

Roxas watched his alarm clock until the little five turned to a six before rolling himself off of his not-so-comfy mattress, down comforter and all, and making his way down the stairs to the kitchen. He stared at the cereal he prepared as it gradually grew soggier and soggier, the conversation about said breakfast food coming back in a sleepless haze. A bitter smile passed over his lips. He huddled deeper in the blanket, pulling it to crown his head. The only thing that had really stuck in his mind from that moment was the care-free air and beauty of the redhead's voice. Gosh, he was such a sap. But the bite to that same voice through the phone…

It had been a long night.

000

"Hey, Roxas! Hurry up and get that hammer, will you?"

Roxas shuffled just slightly faster at the not so gentle prodding by Hayner. He retrieved said hammer, returning to his friend, who had been ever so patiently holding the poster that advertised the first Struggle tournament that the two had participated in. It was a wonder that it hadn't decomposed by then.

It was eleven and the four friends had been working on rejuvenating their usual spot for the better part of three hours. The first half hour of that was spent outside of the place, since Olette had insisted that she had to dust the entirety of the surfaces before they started with anything, which in turn sent them all stumbling out into the open air in coughing and sneezing fits. Needless to say, she had been banned from using the feather duster. They had sent Pence to get some lunch and he hadn't returned just yet.

They had actually made quite a bit of progress, even though there wasn't that much wear and tear on it from the weather. They did have to clean up a rat's nest that had formed behind the couch, though, much to the delight of everyone. Roxas was surprised that he had lasted until then with as little sleep as he had gotten the night before. Little meaning none, in this case. To tell the truth, though, he had been conjuring up different ways to get Axel to listen to his apology the whole time. Calling him didn't seem like it would work, seeing what had occurred the night before, and neither would…

Hayner glared at him from his perch atop the ladder, still waiting for the hammer with the poster rolled up and batting threateningly in his free hand. Roxas snapped out of his temporary zone-out and handed his friend said necessary tool. A hand found his shoulder and his heart leapt into his throat before he realized that it was Olette, not a certain redhead.

"Are you okay, Roxas?" Candy-green eyes were worried, "You seem kind of out of it today."

Hayner snickered, "Isn't he always out of it?"

Roxas turned and spat – friendly, of course – to the other blond, "I am not, Hayner! I just didn't get much sleep last night." Not much, again, meaning none.

The taller blond actually turned around from hammering with a wide, toothy grin, "You too excited about us coming home for break? You should have said so last night. We could've all had a sleepover."

Roxas flopped himself onto a recently scrubbed and dried couch, an easy smile crossing his lips, "That wouldn't have helped my sleeping situation. Then all of us would have been dead like I am."

"And we wouldn't have gotten all this done!" The brunette admired all their hard work. It actually was looking better than they had left it the last time they had been there. Before all of this Axel stuff had smacked Roxas upside the head. He cringed internally. He really had wanted to fix things with the redhead early in the day, but he had already made plans with his friends and hadn't he said something about getting up at eleven?

Pence returned with their lunch soon after that and the four stuffed their faces with the best fish tacos the world had to offer. It was just like old times. Laughing in their usual seats in the usual spot with the usual lunch. But what had once made Roxas feel whole now sent a chill through the one part of him that had grown cold.

After lunch, they unanimously decided to get ice cream and hang out at their other usual spot on top of the tower of the train station. Olette was bubbly, Hayner was his usual light-hearted asshole self, and Pence was just as jolly and care-free as always. Roxas, on the other hand, had turned pensive. His thoughts moved to Axel, once again, as his three friends conversed lightly. He stared at the light blue ice cream as it dripped onto his fingers.

Axel…

He began eating his popsicle in earnest and completed it far before his three friends. He stood suddenly, empty stick in hand.

"You going somewhere?" Hayner squinted up at Roxas, blocking the sun with his arm.

"I forgot. I need to go to the grocery store today," he blurted the first thing that came to mind.

Olette grinned, "Maybe you should take a nap, too."

"And get some popcorn and marshmallows, I don't have any at my house and we're going to need them this week," Pence put in.

"What'd we need that for?" The taller blond asked, and was rewarded by Olette sneaking in and shoving his ice cream into his face. A scuffle ensued, and Roxas was gone.

He hit the pavement and took off at a sprint, tossing the popsicle stick into a nearby garbage can on the way. On the way where? You can bet your ass it wasn't the fucking grocery store.

He was before the oddly singed door with the beat-up looking 8A tacked to the front. The barred front door to the complex had been unlocked, much to Roxas's mix of despair and delight. Apparently it was only locked at night. How convenient.

He knocked. Three times. Soft and timid but audible. He listened hard, but there wasn't a sound from within. Roxas hissed the name of the redhead that he was sure was somewhere in the apartment.

Roxas knocked again, harder and more insistent. This time he thought he heard a stirring from behind the paint-peeling door, but the offending wood did not budge.

The blond sighed, pressing his forehead to the door, and muttered, "Axel, I know you're in there." He lifted his tired hand and knocked twice more. Maybe he was trying too hard. Or that something that had been between them wasn't as big of a something that he had made it out to be. Or maybe Axel just despised his guts. He certainly deserved to be hated after being such an ass to him.

He knocked once more in defeat and almost fell forward when his head-rest was removed, none too gently. Wide blue eyes turned to hard green and the speech Roxas had worked on all night was lost.

A hand at his chest, a fist clenched about his collar. A jolt forward and then a mouth moving against his own. Roxas had no choice but to submit to the redhead's punishing lips. His back was driven against the wall and Axel began in earnest. His tongue passed through already parted lips and the blond hitched a breath. Since when had their kissing become so… invasive? But the light touch of the precious sliver of white skin just below the hem of his shirt turned off all cognitive thought and Roxas simply melted and succumbed to the passion, not bothering to wonder where the hell it had derived from.

Roxas moved his own lips against the redhead's, eliciting a low growl from the back of the latter's throat. Not quite anger, more of… hunger. The blond responded with a yearning noise of his own. Fingers wound unconsciously through red hair and Roxas was crushed against the wall, hands teasing up and down his sides, sending endless chills up his spine. Their chests were pressed together, thundering hearts of wicked woe and strife beating simultaneously. The vivid red spikes were surprisingly soft to the touch and cooler than they seemed they should be with the yellow light flickering against them like fire.

Burning, heat, fervor, lust, enticement.

Teeth grated Roxas's tongue as he leaned helplessly against the wall, lost to Axel's continued caressing. His lips were caught again, fierce and passionate. The hand keenly kneading his soft flesh just above his hip migrated north, further up the chest, eager for more tender flesh; the long fingers evoking a whimper of need from the blond. An explosive and desperate gasp followed, Roxas pulling away from the other's mouth to breathe. Why did this feel so wonderful and yet evoke so much pain from his heart? That deceiving, devilish soul within his chest, mocking and cheering on at every move he made.

Blue eyes were clenched shut, hitching breaths continuing as the lips moved to nibble and tease his jaw, forcing Roxas to squirm from the pure ecstasy of it all. A smaller set of hands clenched and unclenched the red spikes at the base of Axel's neck, encouraging further exploration. Roxas arced his back at the scrape of teeth against the tender flesh of his neck. The lips were removed and a shaky breath of air was let out, the heat of it spreading across Roxas's neck. There was a distinct pause in the movements, the burning passion of the moment suspended in time.

Roxas pried his eyelids apart and was met by the same green as he had seen before. Heavily veiled by lust was underlying hurt, a multitude of questions, and a sense of vulnerability.

As soon as it had begun, it ended. Roxas was left leaning limply against the wall as he saw the red spikes disappear behind the worn door before him. It took him a moment to fully bring his mind back from wherever it had retreated to during the exchange. He stumbled forward on weak knees to lean heavily against the door Axel had retreated behind, burning forehead against the wood once again. He let out a deep sigh. Where had all that come from and how the hell had it even started?

Now the blond was even more scared than before, never mind the fact that the redhead was a fucking good kisser. He really wondered what had brought Axel to simply grab him like that and jam him against the nearest vertical surface… and what the hell had he done to evoke that… lust? Or was it craving? Roxas couldn't deny that he himself had longed for that moment, but he never dreamed it would have to be followed by the horror of what he was forced to do then.

Roxas pulled in a breath and knocked softly. Once, twice, "Axel, you listening?" His knocks were echoed from the other side of the old wood. Roxas could almost feel the redhead's heat through the door, or it could have just been left on his skin from before. Relief flooded his lungs and he launched into an improvised speech, his previous one having been thrown to the wind. His voice was soft, the tight gasps still abating, "Axel, I've never felt like this before." He waited for a 'like what?' but received silence. He continued, "Maybe it's easier to talk to you through a door like this because every time I see you a part of me freezes. It's crazy. We've known each other for only a few days, but you just… It's like I've known you for years and I've just realized it." A single muffled mirthless laugh sifted through the door. Roxas sighed, "I lied before. You're not just spicy. You're Pop Rocks and an Atomic Fireball. I realized that sometime last night."

Roxas bit his lip and groaned, "I'm really bad at this whole apologizing thing, and that whole make-out _thing_ didn't seem like forgiveness to me. But I shouldn't have blown you off like that." He could almost hear the 'damn straight' from Axel's head, "I was scared, but I- you mean more to me than someone I can just dump off at first sight of my old friends." Roxas sighed again, grinding blond spikes into the wood and clenching his eyes shut, sounding just as miserable as he felt, even after the near-grope, "I really hope you were listening to that because I don't think I have the guts to repeat it." Another set of soft knocks reassured him. He was flooded with relief, but only momentarily, "I'm a jerk and an asshole for all the crap I put you through and I can guarantee that this won't be the last time, but I'd like it if you…" he swallowed, "I'd like it if you would give me a chance."

A long silence followed his words until it was broken by footsteps retreating from the door. They didn't return.

It was over. It really_had_ been an angry goodbye kiss back in the hallway. He had said something wrong – taken one wrong step too many. He would never get his Axel back. No more movies with a talkative redhead to distract him from the characters on the screen. No more arm to link perfectly with his. No more laughter and no more joy.

Roxas walked away from 8A, heart as good as gone from his chest where it had thundered previously. But he had no heart. It had already been given to Axel without his knowledge. His steps on the stairs echoed in the eerie light-filled cavernous apartment entrance. Tears that he refused to let spill welled up in crystal eyes.

He was almost to his house when a single tone chirped from his cell. He dug it from his back pocket and flicked it open. A single text message turned his whole life upside down.

_I'll give you as many chances as it will take for you to love me back._

_PS. You are sea salt ice cream._

Roxas punched in the number his fingertips had memorized the second they had first dialed them. A half of a ring managed to get out before their phones connected.

The blond smiled, "I think I already do."

* * *

**End Notes:** CORNY, I know. I would be squeeing at the top of my lungs right now, but it's past midnight and everyone is flipping asleep. Oh, and OMG no SMEX!! Yeah, no. Anyhow, I think that's the longest make-out scene that I have ever written. Go me. I was actually planning for the fight to keep on going, but this was too cute to pass up. And NO this is NOT the end, so don't get your knickers in a twist. There's plenty more stuff in this ol' brain of mine.

PSSSST! My other story (oneshot, really) needs some love, too! Hint, hint!


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note:** Oi, I am running out of things to put here. I'll just say ENJOY THE CHAPTER!! And be done with it.

**Disclaimer: **No ownage, etc.

* * *

Chapter 17

"What should we do with him?"

"I say tickle his face."

"No, I've got a better idea."

Roxas was woken rather abruptly by the sharp impact of being rolled off of his pleasant makeshift bed atop his couch by his freaking best friend since birth. The explosion of laughter only kicked in after his not-so-manly yelp upon his landing. Roxas fucking loved his friends. Fucking. Loved. Them.

"What the hell, Hayner?" Roxas tried to find which way was up and was failing miserably. Which, in turn, caused another uproar of mirth from all three.

"Have a nice nap, Roxas?" Olette chided as the blond shoved himself into a sitting position, rubbing his shoulder, which had suffered the brunt of the floor's attack. Damn gravity.

Roxas rubbed his face to help wake himself up. It didn't work as well as he had hoped, "What time is it?"

"One thirty or so," Pence answered. Well, almost one hour worth of sleep was better than nothing, "Did you even go to the store before you crashed here?"

Oh yes. He got some grade-AA lustful make-out and a six-pack of manhandling. It was quite enough to hold him off for a few days, but there was definitely some room in his kitchen for more. Gotta love those extended metaphors. Roxas shook his head, "Sorry, I must've just crashed." After he got his unconventional groceries.

"Don't worry, Pence, we can get your stuff later when Roxas isn't being a couch potato," Olette grinned down at the blond, his hair skewed even more than it usually was.

"I feel like more of a _mashed_ potato after what this dipwad put me through," Roxas jabbed a thumb in Hayner's direction.

He simply put on a cocky toothy grin, "Hey, what are best friends for?"

Not making out, that's for sure. "I can't believe you guys broke into my house." Roxas rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand.

"Oh, we just used one of the keys to your house that you gave us in, like, fifth grade," Hayner smirked. This earned him a grunt of affirmation, Roxas muttering something about how he should have changed the locks.

The shorter blond let out a wide yawn. Olette plopped herself onto the couch, "Aw, is the puppy tired?"

"I'm not a puppy, 'Lette," Roxas mumbled through a second yawn. Oh, he could be _very_ intimidating. Yes. About as intimidating as a stuffed panda bear is to a bamboo forest. Nope, Roxas was a fucking _lion_, not a puppy. He stood up on sleep-deprived wobbly legs. On second thought, maybe he was just a noodle.

"So Roxas, you seemed to be in a hurry to just go food shopping. You afraid that you would fall asleep before you got your groceries home?" His best friend smirked, punching him in the shoulder.

The shorter blond shrugged in response, "Pretty much. I didn't make it, anyhow." Well, yeah, he actually had run his little errand, just not to the _store_. Big difference.

Pence put on a fake distressed expression, "Now we won't be able to have our oven-roasted marshmallows and popcorn for tonight!"

"Tonight?" The three other friends questioned in unison.

"Well, yeah! You didn't think you could go for a whole week at home without doing a videogame and DDR marathon at my house, did you?"

Roxas fell backwards onto the couch, a hand over his face, "Oh God, please let me sleep!" He was promptly shoved over by a giggling Olette.

"Not a chance, mister insomniac!" She scolded the blond, who had curled on top of his blanket where he had spent a good hour napping. He was promptly clobbered by a large pillow and she thought it was _so_ funny. He fucking loved his friends.

Shave and a haircut. _Ding dong_.

Blue eyes flew open and a heart leapt most pleasantly in his breast. And then there was a different sort of almost-love.

"Who _knocks_ like _that_?" Hayner sneered as Roxas pushed himself up, suddenly much more awake than he had been just thirty seconds before. The shorter blond was careful to make it out of the room and to the door as quick as he could without making it seem as though he were in a rush or eager to answer the door. Because who could he possibly want to rush to open the door for?

"Axel," the blond breathed, a bewildered smile slowly working its way across his cheeks. And there the redhead was, standing on his porch in all of his brilliance. His grin was sweet with an apologetic air. The blond slipped through the doorway and the door was shut behind him.

They stood on the porch, the only bystander the camel statue, in complete silence. Countless emotions were in the air between them, and yet it seemed alright.

"Hey, Rox." There was that adoration. It never got old.

Roxas threw his arms about Axel's neck and buried his face into the crook of his neck. In turn, the redhead wrapped his arms about the blond's waist and pulled him so their bodies were flush against one another, his cheek pressed to the soft blond spikes.

Roxas grinned against the soft flesh of Axel's neck, "Axel, you asshole." A kiss was pressed to the side of his head and a whisper flowed over his ear.

"Only for you, Roxas." It was almost a purr, and the blond could feel the vibration of his voice in his chest, which throbbed with an indescribable sensation.

"God, when you walked away…" Roxas trailed off, pulling away just slightly so he could look at those cat-like eyes, "Some part of me just _died_ and I couldn't-" his lips were captured and the thought was lost, replaced with warmth and spice and _Axel_.

"You couldn't get rid of me that easily," he smiled, a genuine look of pure affection. Roxas couldn't find the words to reply to Axel, so the redhead continued on, "You got a horde of homophobes in there, or what?" He motioned to the closed door with a jut of his chin.

A look of guilt crossed Roxas's eyes, "I can't tell them yet. I don't know how."

The smile dulled, "Just tell them straight off about just how un-straight you are."

Roxas groaned and crushed his spikes into the chest before him. Why did the freaking redhead have to snap their moment in two? "It might've worked all peachy-keen with you, but I don't think I would be able to."

"Rox, my parents kicked me out of the house when I told them." Wide blue met sober green, "I don't think you have that to risk."

Roxas felt suddenly weak, "But I'm not you."

"Precisely." A wide grin crossed Axel's face before they connected once again. A tongue slipped along the seam of Roxas's lips, gently seeking permission to enter. It was eagerly granted and they lapsed into a sweet kiss, each one tasting the other lightly, neither relapsing into the aggression of the previous bout of angry passion, but of affection and light-hearted want to be close at that moment.

Roxas was the first to pull away, "You like to mess with my head, don't you?" It was more of a statement and not menacing in the least. It was simply soft.

"Which is in need of a brush, I might say." Axel buried his nose into the unruly locks of hair, "You just get attacked by a lawnmower?"

Roxas snorted, "Napping. I couldn't sleep at all last night."

"Neither could I," Axel grinned bitterly and pressed their foreheads together, bitterness wiped away in a blink, replaced by a mirthful air, "You'd better get back in. They'll start to think you got abducted or something."

A smile broke across Roxas's cheeks, "Or something. Does this mean I get a break from the coming out of the closet prodding?"

"Not a chance. But I'll be lenient with your friends and only molest you a _little_ when they are around." He emphasized this point by swirling his thumbs into the white skin of Roxas's middle, causing the petit to squirm.

"Oh, how kind of you." Roxas rolled his eyes and unhooked his arms from around the redhead's neck, and was released in turn.

The redhead glanced at his watch before sighing, "I should get off to work." Roxas nodded, covering his arms with his hands to keep off the chill now that Axel wasn't holding him. His hair was ruffled before the redhead turned away and hopped down the porch step. Halfway down the walkway, he spun on his heel and called to the blond, "Hey Rox, are we more than friends yet?"

"No use denying it, now," Roxas replied and Axel glowed before spinning back around and hopping in his hunk of junk that the world dared to call a car, but not before giving one last wave to his more-than-a-friend. Roxas waved back before turning back to the door.

It closed behind him, and the blond was kicked in the ass by reality, "Oi, Roxas, what the hell took you so long?" Hayner called from the other room. Oh how easily he had forgotten his friends when Axel was there. But there was the problem. The oh so recently smooched blond waltzed into the living room while trying his best to keep his happy gait to a minimum. He shrugged and dumped himself onto the couch. Hayner continued, "What did he want?"

"Axel? A fucking cup of sugar," Roxas replied easily, yawning once again.

"You don't have any sugar?" Olette quirked an eyebrow. Oh, he had plenty of sugar, just not the kind that you _bake_ with. Roxas's certain kind of sugar was reserved for a single redhead. Roxas shrugged once again.

"I know I've seen him somewhere before," Pence wondered aloud, plopping his chin into his palm.

Hayner sniffed, "Yeah, right when he first walked up when we first got here yesterday?"

That was when Olette perked up, "No, you goof. He went to our high school. He graduated a year before us."

Roxas turned on Olette, bewilderment obvious in his voice, "Really?"

She simply waved him off, "I'd never forget someone like _that_. He is a total hottie," her eyes glazed over dreamily. Roxas was disgusted. Axel was _his_, damn it!

Pence laughed, "Hey Roxas, you should hook them up!" This sent a chorus of laughter among the three friends.

Roxas stiffened to almost the extent of actually _showing_ his discomfort, "He's taken." The blond tried his best to sound neutral without sounding defensive. He thought he pulled it off pretty well.

Olette continued to giggle, "Aw, here's to hoping!"

Hayner smirked, "Yeah, if he ever does get available, tell him to give 'Lette a ring."

Roxas groaned internally. Wasn't this supposed to be _easy_? But then again, Axel had lost his house and had been all but alienated by his own parents. Easy and closet don't go together in any shape or form. The blond yawned to loosen himself up, but it was mostly caused by his lack of sleep. No question there. Except that he sent off a chain reaction, and before long, they were all yawning.

Olette finally stopped the yawning madness, "Okay, we need coffee, pronto." No one objected and soon, they were all piled into the brunette's little girly car. Pence called shot gun, but there was the obligatory fight over the front seat anyhow, with much shoving and yanking of the car handle. Hayner emerged the victor, and Pence and Roxas muttered crossly as they climbed into the back seat.

Olette blasted her favorite Beatles songs, Hayner was gloating in the front seat, and Roxas and Pence got into an epic battle of rock-paper-scissors. The car swerved into a parking spot and the group clambered out. It was then that Roxas saw exactly _which_ coffee shop Olette had decided to take them to.

Roxas hoped to the high heavens that Axel would lay low like he said he would. They entered, chattering happily amongst themselves and, lo and behold, there was the head of brilliant red hair pulled back by a daring hair tie. Apparently Olette had caught sight of him as well and had turned a pretty shade of pink.

He belonged to Roxas. Hands off.

Said blond steered the group to a set of comfy chairs surrounding a coffee table, right beside the pair that had housed the lovebirds the first time. Needless to say, Olette offered to go up and order their drinks.

Roxas grinned, "Tell him I want his special Earthquake coffee."

* * *

**End Notes: **I'm in need of more ego boosting! Go review and boost the ego of your local writer and earn brownie points!

… I'm going to go make cookies now.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: **I broke 100 pages in my word document with this thing! Woot! And 300 reviews! WTF people?! Love you all, as always!

**Disclaimer: **There are too many things in here that I don't own. Please don't make me list them all out. AUGH!! But I love them so.

**Suggested Listening:** Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. I fucking LOVE that song. And various insane remixed music – preferably something from DDR.

**Suggested Drinking: **An earthquake. BUAHA! Or jasmine green tea. Whichever suits your fancy.

**Other Junk:** Yeah, too much junk before the chapter, I know. Anywho. I've been confusing the hell out of myself with the update schedule for this thing. I was originally going to do one chapter every three days, but lately the division between two and three days has been blurred. I blame my AP Government class and Gulliver's Travels for that. But whatever. Here's a new chapter anyway!

Chapter 18

Olette returned to the group with a giddy grin plastered to her face that didn't seem like it would leave anytime soon, "He _smiled_ at me!" She squirmed in her comfy chair, a snickering Pence in the next chair over. She giggled a bit more before demanding payment for each of their drinks. Roxas simply simmered and refused to acknowledge the devilish jealousy pulsing through him, his brain on a one-sided single track of MINE MINE MINE!

Roxas submitted to simply commenting blandly, "'Lette, you're embarrassing me. Stop fawning over my friend."

Hayner snatched a smirk in the other blond's direction, "Oh lighten up, insomniac. You're just put out that you don't have girls fawning over _you_."

It was quite hard to not yell at his friend a big old 'Shows what you know!' But he dolefully refrained. He was trying his best to concoct a response with his very sleep-deprived brain, which was floundering uselessly.

"Hey little dude!" Good lordie, saved by the… Demyx? Roxas looked up to find the bouncy Mohawk guy from the other day skipping – literally – over to their little group.

The littlest blond – why the hell did he have to be the smallest of the three in the vicinity? – gave a weak wave, "Hi, Demyx."

"Hey!" He greeted once again, waving both hands hysterically before him as if none of the group could actually see him. "Hey, Axel told me what happened. So, you guys cool now?" He was rocking back on his heels and bouncing simultaneously. Very distracting and obviously caffeine induced.

"Uh, yeah." The older blond beamed at Roxas before snatching his hand and jiggling it in his glee, complete with a squealing giggle.

"That's so awesome, Roxas! You have no idea how long Axel has waited for-" A hand covered Demyx's shoulder and he was cut off by a shorter and rather calmer man with silver-blue hair swept over the side of his face. Wow, Axel was right, he did seem a bit emo. But not in the wrist-cutting sense. More like the deeply pensive and book-reading sense. Or maybe he was just a mellow guy.

"Now _dear_, stop scaring the customers or I'm going to have to take you home," he said directly, speaking as though he were talking to a mental patient. But it was Demyx on a coffee high – there really wasn't much of a difference.

"But Zexy, this is _Roxas_, Axel's-"

"Dem," the bubbly man's boyfriend stated sternly, most pointedly cutting off the most vital point in his sentence, much to the relief of Roxas. Demyx sobered as much as he could, though he still twitched a bit. He was guided away from the group by Zexion, who turned and made a quick apology, "Sorry about him. Coffee makes him loopy. Speaking of coffee…" He turned and raised his voice to carry over to the caffeine bar, "Axel, you asshat. I told you to give him _decaf_."

"Sorry, Zexy-wexy!" Wow, Axel seemed happy. Roxas had to keep from squirming and giggling in delight at the sound of so much joy from the redhead.

A vaguely familiar song started on the radio playing overhead and a girlish squeal came from Demyx, "Ohmygosh, I love this song!" Apparently the Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams was the Mohawk blond's favorite song. Or one of.

"That's nice, Dem," Zexion sighed, steering his boyfriend out of view.

"Geez, how do you _know_ these people?" Hayner's hazel eyes continued to widen to an incredulous stare, turning on Roxas.

If Olette were in a cartoon, she would most likely be drooling a river and have hearts for eyes, "Yeah, how did you get such attractive friends, Roxas?"

He shrugged, "From school." She didn't have to know that all three of the guys she was swooning over couldn't care less about girls. Not to mention that they were all _fucking taken_. Growl.

"So, what happened between you two that got worked out?" Pence inquired.

Roxas froze. Had they seen something? No. Not possible. His front door didn't have windows and it was shut. He played it cool, shrugging, "He was being an asshole. We're good now."

Olette continued to go on about her passion for chasing guys, "Roxas, you lucky goose. _I_ want a friend like him."

Hayner turned on her, "And what's so bad about _us_?"

"Oh please, Hayner. I wouldn't date my best friends that I've had since forever," she scoffed.

"And what's he got that I don't, 'Lette?" Hmm, maybe Hayner just didn't want any additions to their close-knit group. This discovery certainly put a certain question to rest for Roxas. It wasn't just _him_ that Hayner didn't want to share.

Olette pointed an index finger at the taller blond's face, "A brain, for one." The group lapsed into laughter, Hayner joining in after a moment. Roxas had to admit that it was at least halfway true.

Said brain-filled redhead interrupted the mirth and called out from the counter, "Roxie, I've got your order." A moment of thought passed, then, "I mean, it's for Olette. Olette! Order up!"

Roxas bit his lip. Well, at least he had half of a brain. He heaved himself out of the comfy chair before the flirtatious girl could.

Pence's eyes widened, "Woah, how did he know it was you?" This made Roxas pause. Axel couldn't see him from where he was seated. But then again, Demyx had called his name rather loudly. But then, why hadn't he come over and molested him just a little bit less than he would have, as he had promised?

Olette turned on Roxas, "I didn't tell him."

"Must've seen us walk in the door. Be right back." Roxas made his way to the counter and found the cocky redhead leaned over the drinks. The blond couldn't describe how his heart swelled at the sight of him.

Axel smirked, "Who's stalking me _now_?"

Roxas scoffed, "It was Olette who chose to come here, not me, dipwad." He couldn't contain the smile that had spread itself across his face.

"Well, I got your order, all hot and steamy." Roxas had to stop himself from choking at that. Axel continued, non-perturbed, "Sorry, I would've given you my free drink, but I seriously needed it."

Roxas continued to grin, "That's why I ordered your special." Perhaps _that_ was how Axel had realized that it was him. Or maybe his Roxas-senses were tingling. The blond didn't really want to dwell on _where_ exactly it tingled.

Axel winked, "But I did give you a free extra shot. Hope that helps."

Roxas leaned on the opposite side of the counter as the redhead, eyelids lowering just slightly, "I think it might."

Axel continued his smirk, "You tell them yet?"

Roxas let out a laugh, "Hell no. Olette thinks you're hot, though." Blue eyes were rolled and the bitterness stirred in his gut, immediately pointed out by Axel.

"Oh, my little Roxie getting jealous?" Somehow, he was absolutely delighted over this fact.

The blond flushed to a pretty shade of pink, "Shut up."

Axel laughed sweetly, giving Roxas's spikes a nice rub down, "Don't you worry, I'm about as straight as the Tennessee River." The blond snatched two of the mugs and was contemplating over carrying the other two. One with his mouth and the other on his head? Luckily, Axel stepped in to save the day, "Need some help carrying those, Roxie?"

"It would help," Roxas mumbled in return.

Axel made his way around the counter and grabbed the other two mugs, "You've got yours and the tea is jerk-face's." Obviously meaning Hayner. He strolled to alcove where Roxas's friends sat, put on charming smile, and gave Pence his hot chocolate. He lingered longer upon handing Olette her coffee, "Here you are. Olette, was it?" She took the drink and was rendered speechless, apparently, by his sex-god glory. _Roxas's _sex-god glory, thank you very much. He enhanced that glory by grasping her free hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. Olette promptly turned into a tomato.

"Axel!" Roxas shoved an elbow into the redhead's side after relieving one of his hands by handing his best friend his tea. Axel simply turned and laughed, patting Roxas's shoulder as he passed by, returning to his post.

Olette, who was still in shock by the whole ordeal, hissed, "Roxas, what did you _tell_ him?"

Roxas sat back in his claimed comfy chair and replied as if he had not a care in the world, "Nothing of consequence." He took a sip of his Earthquake and was shocked by both the sweetness and the hotness. It reminded him of his more-than-a-friend to the nth degree.

Pence laughed, "Somehow I don't believe you."

Olette huffed, still bright red, "What's an earthquake anyway? I didn't see it up on the board." Roxas held back a snort. Oh, because she was _so_ looking at the coffee selections while ordering.

Roxas grinned over rim of his mug, "Axel's creation. It has basically everything in it. I don't even _want_ to know how many shots are in it." And it was _his_, made by _his_ somebody of importance. Snarl.

Hayner's hazel eyes widened, "Sounds wicked."

"Says the one with the jasmine green tea," Pence snuck in.

Roxas laughed heartily, feeling warm and happy, "Oh burn, Hayner." It had been a while since he had felt this right with the world. Even if he had the closet issue to deal with, it had been pushed aside by his friends' easy-going and fun nature. Maybe it wouldn't be as hard as he had thought. But then again…

They eventually finished their drinks and piled back into Olette's car. But not before Roxas had to 'use the restroom' and had been bodily shoved into the storage closet by a certain redhead who wanted to steal a quick kiss. With tongue and teeth and the sucking of the neck and all that. Complete with a flustered Roxas and a disappointed Axel at the blond's refusal of receiving a hickey. Wouldn't want to be too suspicious, now would they?

So yes, they went to the store and picked up the necessary items by decree of Pence. They discovered that a small grocery store was no place for four caffeine-high college students, to say the least. It was a bit worse for wear when they left with the food in hand and they each got a death glare from the check-out clerk person. Anyway, they made it to Pence's house and DDR was dug up and the bad techno blasted through the mega-speakers.

Several hours later, they were still in Pence's house. With the same music at the same volume level. At nine-thirty. Roxas's friends were stilly hyped up after those many hours. The caffeine hadn't lasted that long for our favorite blond, unfortunately.

The blond was currently sprawled over half of the couch in the noisy den, the world a vague blur. His world consisted of staring at the pounding feet of both Pence and Hayner as they duked it out, and once in a while it consisted of looking at the seizure-inducing screen before them. His eyes were threatening to fall shut without opening for a good nine hours when a single beep and an annoying jiggle came from his back pocket. He dug out his cell and flipped it open, none too surprised at who the text happened to be from.

'_You asleep yet?'_

Roxas's brain conjured an image of Axel lying on his stomach, all cozy under the comforter on his bed in the nud- in his PYRO FRIGGIN' BOXERS. Gotta get that down pat. It had been a _joke_, right? …Right?

Roxas ground a palm into his eye, using his unoccupied hand and eye to punch in a reply.

'_Kidding? Pence's house and DDR on full blast? I'm barely alive right now.'_

A moment passed before the phone buzzed in his hand.

'_Has that perky girl asked for my number yet?'_

Roxas sneered at the device, '_Why should you care?'_

That was when the Olette noticed the blond's diverted attention, "Hey Roxas, who're you texting?"

Roxas let out a wide yawn, stuffing his phone back in pocket. Better not give the girl the opportunity to snatch it and see a certain message left by the redhead previously, "Axel is being a dipwad again. He said you are perky, though." Carefully neutral, of course.

Olette brightened, just as he had expected, "He's talking about me?"

The blond rolled his eyes, "He's still taken, 'Lette." And would be for a _long time_, so she'd better not get her already hopeless hopes up.

Olette let out a huff and crossed her arms before her. Turning to the two dance-oholics, she called out above the obnoxious music, "Hey guys, wanna give me a turn now?" She, apparently, needed to pound her frustration and hatred for the nonexistent girlfriend of Axel's out on the plastic DDR pad. Somehow, Roxas didn't think she would be so put out if she knew that _he_ was the nonexistent girlfr- _**BOY**_friend. Not girl. Not cute. No.

"We're going for the championship," Hayner threw out, not willing to break his concentration with the screen. He probably wouldn't be able to make enough brain-leg neurological pulses if he had said anything more.

"I'm making some more popcorn, then," Olette declared, shoving herself off of her side of the couch.

"Just don't blow up my kitchen," the Pence zombie instructed.

The cell phone buzzed again and was pulled out and flipped open.

'_I only care about you. You should know that by now.'_

Roxas smiled, not bothering to hide it since his three friends happened to be preoccupied. He punched the numbers rapidly, _'I do. You're just being a dipwad.'_

'_Does this mean I'm going to get cut off from making out with you?'_ The blond could almost see the mischievous grin. Roxas put on his own version and texted back.

'_Go to sleep, asshole.'_

'_Love ya too, darl.'_

Roxas snapped the phone shut, grinning giddily to himself. It was about an hour after that when the party broke apart, mostly because Pence's parents couldn't stand much more of the noise, much to the delight of a certain exhausted blond. He bummed a ride home off of Olette and was asleep as soon as his banana ice cream sundae-clad body hit the bed, the smile not leaving his face for a good long while after he had turned to the world of flying sheep and beautiful and slightly insane redheads.

**End Notes:** I love jasmine green tea. Just thought I would say that. Oh, I also love DDR, so that gives me license to bash it as much as I want. AHA! I also want Roxas's fast texting skillz. I have a WPM of about 1.5 on that freaking phone.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: **Sorry it's a bit later than usual. I actually got caught up with writing… the next chapter. AHAHA! Yeah. Chapter 20 is just one of those chapters that yells at you, "Write me, damn it, or you shan't EVER write AGAIN!" Anywho, have fun with this chapter. I've got a hot date with my pillow and some stuffed animals. …Wow, that sounded wrong.

Ahem. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, etc.

**Suggested Listening: **80's and 90's pop. At least for the middle section.

* * *

Chapter 19

"Why do you refuse to let people call you cute, but you allow adorable?" Axel inquired the petit blond, who was currently using his chest as a backrest and his tented knee as an armrest. Roxas had, essentially, ditched Hayner Pence and Olette in favor of spending the day couch-potato-ing around his house and, what do you know, a certain redhead had invited himself over with a stash of absolutely necessary movies under his arm.

Roxas rolled his eyes, turning his attention away from the credits rolling by on the screen, "Because adorable uses higher diction than cute and it gives me a sense of dignity. Puppies are cute. I'm not a fucking _puppy_."

Axel hugged the blond about his middle, "Nope, you're my little _Roxie_. You adorable little fiend, you."

"Oxymoron," Roxas pointed out blandly.

"You're a moron," was fired right back.

"Your mom's a moron."

"Your _foot_."

"Your _face_."

"Your body! Oh burn!" Axel's cheerful laugh overcame the music from the credits to the second movie in the Matrix trilogy.

Roxas smirked, "So you never told me that you went to Twilight High."

Axel's laughter died down, but a smile still blared through, "You mean you don't remember seeing me there?"

"Well no, that campus is freaking huge and I pretty much hung around Hayner, Pence and Olette most of the time. I was, like, blind to anything and everything that actually went on outside of class there." Roxas droned on, unaware of the stillness of the redhead he was leaned up against.

"You mean you don't remember the quirky redhead who dug your sorry freshman ass out of the trashcan? That hurts, Rox." The last bit ended with an obvious smirk.

Roxas quirked an eyebrow and swiveled his head around so he could meet those cat-like eyes, "That was you?"

Axel let out a bark of laughter, "Glad to hear that I am memorable. But that was before I started to ask people if they had me memorized. But you seriously don't remember me?"

The blond gave a wary smile, "If I say that I do, would you stop with the guilt trip?"

The redhead scoffed, "Well, I seem to remember a certain timid and slightly gloomy blondie shuffling across campus. If I noticed your scrawny ass, there's no reason for you not to see me. I'm like, a freaking beacon."

"Sorry, Ax," Roxas smirked, "You're not quite bright enough, I guess."

Axel snorted, "So my natural colors and height aren't enough of an eye-catcher? There goes my dignity. I could've sworn I saw you look at me at least once."

Roxas wrinkled his nose, his grin wide, "Please don't tell me that I had a pyromaniac pedophile stalker. It might just ruin the grand memory of my entire high school experience."

"Pedophile? Isn't that a bit harsh?" The redhead gave an exaggerated wince.

Blue eyes widened as realization struck, "You really _did_ stalk me? So _that's_ why you were so keen to be my friend, you fucking sneak," a black tattoo was poked, "See if I ever let you make _me_ coffee again. Who knows what you could put in there to try to seduce me."

A mischievous grin brightened Axel's cheeks, "But would I really need to seduce you anymore, Rox?"

Roxas opened his mouth to respond in some witty fashion, but nothing came out. The redhead laughed heartily, stealing a kiss on the blond's forehead. The abashed petit flushed and adverted his gaze, "Yeah, congratulations on shoving me into a corner."

"You're welcome." Blue turned back to warm green, "And by the way, my coffee is completely drug free, besides the caffeine. It's the way to be, you know. And I didn't really _stalk_ you. That would just be creepy. You were just so intriguing that I had to keep an eye out for you. And I was keen on becoming your friend because you are the most awesome dude on the planet, duh. Well, that and you are hopelessly adorable."

Roxas rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to the screen, which had returned to the DVD menu, "Well, what can we do now? Besides making out and doing anything having to do with coming out of the closet." He settled back into Axel's chest, the latter's face burrowing into the blond spikes.

Axel took a deep whiff of Roxas's hair and hummed his content, "I haven't been to the skating rink in a while."

Roxas gave a deceiving grin, hidden from the redhead's view, "Skating? I'm probably a bit rusty."

"I'd be happy to be the cushion you fall on," the redhead purred into his ear, tightening his hold on the blond.

His grin widened, "I'll dig up my skates." Roxas tried to remove himself from the couch, but was stopped by the arms still circling his middle.

"Aw, my lap warmer is leaving?" And there was that enticing circling thumb in his side again.

Roxas pried the arms off of him, but not without an ounce of regret at the warm touch leaving, "Yup. Back in a bit." He disappeared up the stairs, dug around in the hall closet which he hadn't thought to touch in quite some time, and tromped his way down the stairs with his found skates draped over his shoulders, the laces tied together to achieve this awesome feat.

An oddly familiar tune was hummed at him and Axel followed through with the lyrics from the song Roxas remembered from when he was, like, five, "Bananas in pajamas are coming down the stairs. Bananas in pajamas are-"

"I'm not a banana," Roxas smirked at the miffed redhead who had his brilliant song cut off. Not that there actually were a pair of bananas walking down the stairs. Just Roxas.

But the rather superficial hurt didn't last long, "I like bananas." Except those hungry green eyes didn't look like they had a hankering for monkey food.

Roxas let out an incredulous cough, "We are _not_ having this conversation."

Feigned innocence returned to Axel briefly, "What? We're talking about fruit."

Blue eyes were rolled, "Just don't start talking about muffins."

"I like blueberry," Axel grinned.

"Oh God, please stop," Roxas cringed and he was wrapped into a one-armed hug.

The redhead giggled, planting a kiss in the haphazard spikes, "Roxie, you are too much fun. Nice blades, by the way."

Roxas conceded to allow the maniac's arm remain around him, "Dipwad. You driving?"

Axel snickered, "Someone is eager to leave."

Roxas snorted, "My ass has been asleep for the past half hour."

The blond immediately regretted that answer as Axel's eyes lit up, "I could fix that."

Yeah. That was why. The redhead was promptly shoved away, "Go play on a freeway, Axel."

"Oh, denied!"

Roxas shot Axel a keening side glance, retrieving his wallet and cell, which he stuffed ever so enticingly into his back pocket. "Got your keys?"

Axel slapped a hand to his hip, where said keys hung, "You betcha." He leaned in and snuck a kiss onto Roxas's cheek.

The blond flushed a pretty pink, "You done yet?"

Axel laughed, "You kidding? I could do this all day." But at Roxas's twisted smirk, he resolved to put his teasing on hold. At least for a little bit, "Okay, let's go."

000

Axel let out a grumble, "There should be speed limits that correspond with height level." He had just recently been knocked unbalanced, for the third time, by a speeding kid who didn't look like he were more than seven. And they were only on their second lap around the rink.

Roxas slapped on a cocky smirk as he switched from his smooth gliding forwards to an elegant backwards weave. He reached and grabbed Axel's hand to prevent the pin-wheeling redhead from falling on his ass. "Now, that wouldn't be very fair to those of us with height deficiencies. You doing alright, Ax?" And the blond got just the response he had been hoping for. What do you know? It really had paid off to take those skating lessons those few years ago.

Axel let his jaw drop, "Backwards? How the hell do you do that?"

Roxas shrugged, "Practice. And a lot of falling on my ass." Which was entirely true.

"I shall mourn it forever," he threw out flippantly, "Coming up on the curve here, Rox."

The blond gave a quick glance over his shoulder and slid into an effortless glide to the side, showing off the utmost ease and elegance of the motion. Axel, on the other hand, continued to pin-wheel his now free arms and was almost knocked over once again, but kept up for the most part.

Axel pulled up beside Roxas, who had changed his gears to the forward setting, "Sheesh, you're like a child prodigy."

Roxas snorted, "Except for the fact that I'm almost nineteen."

"Short enough, though." Quite suddenly, Roxas clipped the front of the redhead's skate and that silly expression ate polished wood flooring as Axel went sprawling.

Roxas expertly ground to a stop before Axel's head, "You were saying?" Damn, it felt good to be better at something than the cocky pyromaniac.

A few of the speeding kids swerved around Axel's rather embarrassing position, lanky limbs struggling to right the redhead, "Yeah, haw, haw." He tried to stand, only to come crashing back down onto his knees.

Roxas smirked in triumph, "Does the big boy need assistance?" Axel wordlessly and gladly took the blond's offered hand and they continued on.

After fully regaining his balance and working his way into a steady rhythm, Axel turned his attention back to the rather experienced roller-blader, "Okay, I deserved that."

Roxas's grin broadened, "Damn straight."

"Except you're not." Elbows were loosely linked together.

"No shit, dipwad," the blond replied, just as the DJ was announcing that it was advanced skater freestyle time.

Axel jiggled Roxas's elbow in excitement, "Ohh, Rox, freestyle. It's your chance to strut your stuff!"

Roxas rolled his eyes, but the grin wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, "Don't make me trip you again."

The blond was shoved forward as Axel pulled to the side and given a very basic instruction by the shover, "Strut."

Roxas, after not having lost his balance, turned backwards and stuck his tongue out at the redhead before kicking off of the ground to go forwards again, landing on one blade and gliding on. His movements were graceful and carefree to the nth degree, each step precise and yet natural to the blond as he alternated smoothly from forward to reverse. He caught the awed and simply adoring face of Axel and flashed him a smile as he passed by, making skating on one blade look as easy as pie.

The next day came about and Roxas decide to spend with Hayner Pence and Olette, having felt guilty at ditching them in favor of hanging out and skating with Axel. It was turning out to be a struggle between his friends and his more-than-a-friend over him, and frankly, Roxas was finding it harder and harder to make up excuses for leaving his friends in order to spend quality time with Axel. So he had woken up that morning and arranged for them all to spend the day together, just like old times. They went to the beach and got pretzels, they sat up on the tower with their ice cream, and scurried all the way back to Olette's car as the sky started to pour rain by the bucketful. Evening found them all huddled by a cheery fire in Hayner's house with marshmallows at the ready.

But just as Roxas was growing warm with the fire's heat, the conversation turned his blood cold.

"Didn't you ever hear any rumor going around campus about how someone had smashed a keyboard into one of the library computer monitors? I heard that it was _him_." The 'him' Hayner was referring to jokingly just so happened to be the one redhead who had so captured and enthralled Roxas one week before.

The stubborn Olette, to whom this piece of apparent truth was told, simply crossed her arms and replied with a pretend regal tone, "I heard that it was some freshman with temper problems who got angry over someone stealing his zip-disc." Roxas's blood boiled in rage as the conversation - which had gone on for a good twenty minutes before - continued.

Hayner snorted at the brunette's flippant defense of his fun-picking, "But did you see how freakishly skinny he is? He's probably a fucking anorexic or a drug addict of some kind. He did seem sort of loopy when he was in Twilight High."

"Or he could just have a naturally perfect body. Ever wonder about that, Hayner?" Olette sent a sneering grin his way before nibbling on a marshmallow fresh from the pack.

The cocky blond blew her off, "Psh, he's just creepy, 'Lette. He always had a strange twisted sort of a grin on his face. Probably a fag, too. With AIDS, more likely than not."

That was when Roxas's brain exploded into a million pieces and all senses were lost. He stood with the force and speed of lightening, an equally fierce snarl adhering to his face.

His three friends looked up at him, all mirth deriving from bashing Olette's crush – and Roxas's special someone, lest you fucking forget – was lost in that instant. A small inquiry came from a rather confused brunette girl who had been so kind in her damned flirting with his fucking boyfriend. Yes, _boyfriend_. _His_ fucking boyfriend who they were all smashing to the dust with their condescending laughter and wicked lies.

It was one simple question and her obliviousness is what finally made him snap.

"What's up, Roxas?"

* * *

**End Notes: **OH CLIFFHANGER, FTW!

Oh, and I thought of that whole skating scene a few weeks ago when I went to the skating rink with my friends. I was squeeing the whole time.

And the whole thing about the muffins came from reading "The Importance of Being Earnest" in my English class. That play is freaking hilarious and whenever they talk about food, they are _not_ talking about food. Which makes it full of win.


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note: **Oi, YOU try having this whole scene stuck in your head when you are supposed to be reading and annotating (in depth, mind you) book 3 of Gulliver's Travels for your AP English class at 10 at night. Man, it was DEATH. So, what did I do? I flipping blew off reading for an hour or two to write the first half of this thing. But it wasn't nearly as bad as having that one certain scene in Chapter 11 running through my head when I was supposed to be studying for a Government test. Now THAT was torture, pure and simple.

**Disclaimer: **Ownage equals zilch. Nada. Comprende, amigooooos?

* * *

Chapter 20

Roxas was running. He was running and didn't pull to a stop until his lungs and throat burned in agony with more than just the physical strain of sprinting for more than a few blocks. He bent over double and succumbed to a bout of coughing with a few sobs thrown in. He had really screwed up this time. No, it hadn't turned out the way he had imagined it to. The looks from his friends… wide eyes, disbelief, and had that been disgust, or was it just his mind playing tricks on him?

His small hands cupped his elbows as he shook with more than just fear. It was… rejection. In the worst sense of the word. It had begun to rain and he hadn't spent enough time at Hayner's after the exchange to stop and put his jacket on. No… he hadn't wanted to stay in that house for one second after...

He was running again, tears lost in the trickles of rain running down his face. Bitter tears. Tears that should never have been. The pure fury melted with the rain that was quickly soaking through to his skin, leaving behind only hurt and vulnerability. His leg gave way under him and he crashed to the pavement, his knee taking the brunt of the fall. Roxas remained on the rough and uneven sidewalk, bent over on his knees, the pain not registering as his sobs filled the silence between the shattering of water about him.

An inner voice coerced him to stand and he and continued on his way, his injured knee almost buckling under him. But the green-orange beacon of light prodded him on, bringing tainted promises of warmth and shelter. And of Axel.

A shivering and drenched white hand knocked against the old barred door when the knob wouldn't turn. Not that Roxas had expected it to, seeing as it was well past dusk. A flashing red light just beside Roxas caught the deep blue eyes. The button beside 8A was pushed in by the frozen, sopping blond. An undecipherable crackle came over the speaker and the button was shoved in once again.

"Axel, let me in," he ground out, not sounding nearly as miserable as he felt. Soon afterwards, a buzz came from the front door and Roxas pressed in. It took him a moment to climb the stairs in his injured state, the stab of pain becoming apparent quite suddenly with the exertion.

He pried his hand from its spot on his arm and pounded on the old door, the 8A rattling with the force that Roxas didn't know he had the energy for. The door swung open beneath his fist and his palm returned to warming his arm.

In the split second between the door opening and the green eyes falling to the blond, Axel flashed a brilliant grin onto his face and said rather cockily, "Yo, where's the fire?" And then he realized just how out of place that perky statement was at that moment. Cat-like eyes widened as Roxas shuffled in, teeth chattering and shaky breaths turning to silent painful whimpers. He took a few steps into the room and stopped, simply holding himself and shivering.

The door was shut, "Roxas? You're-" here he paused and the blond felt the gaze bore into his back, "You're soaked." Fuzzy sock covered feet worked their way to stand before him. Unfathomably warm hands cupped his shoulders, "Jesus, you're freezing, too." Roxas was pressed to the warm chest, head crushed against the precious throb of the precious heart. So much more alive than his own. "I'll get you a towel." The arms moved to pull away.

"I told them," Roxas choked out before he was released. He opened his eyes to a whole lot of green filled with speechless amazement, but more than just that. It was understanding.

"Rox-"

"They were telling lies and shit about you to make Olette want stop crushing on you and I- I lost it. I couldn't just let them- they were- Hayner was…"

"Roxas," the redhead's insistent voice broke through to the blond, "It's over. It's okay," a warm hand slid up his arm almost protectively, "We can talk about it in a bit, but for now, let's get you dry before you freeze to death." The sopping mop of drooping blond locks nodded and he was led to the bedroom and set down on the foot of the bed. The room was just as Roxas had imagined: small but cozy and just as exotic as the rest of the apartment.

The redhead dug through the drawers of a scruffy dresser and pulled out an oversized towel. Red with orange Hawaiian flowers. It was pulled around still-convulsing shoulders, large hands rubbing his arms to help warm and dry him off simultaneously. Roxas could feel a soft eye searching his downward-turned face, a hand lingering on his upper arm.

"It must be pouring out there; your clothes are soaked," Axel observed quietly, pulling away to dig through his dresser once more. Roxas didn't really need to be told that particular information. He returned momentarily with a flannel something in tow, offering it to the blond, "They're probably going to be huge on you, but they're warm." When Roxas made no move to grasp the offered clothing, they were set beside him, and there were those searching green eyes again, hands pressed to the mattress on either side of the blond.

"You get dried off. I'll be right outside," Axel began to pull away, but Roxas threw his arms about the redhead's neck, pressing his face to the broad shoulder before him. The blond could feel the smile in the redhead's voice, "Rox, I'm not leaving you." A kiss was pressed to his damp neck and the smile was gone, "Roxas, I need you to let go. I'm going to be right out there. Just come out when you're done, okay?" The blond complied, pulling away from the redhead, who pressed another kiss to his forehead before leaving the room.

Roxas was quick to strip himself of the sopping clothing and dry off his shivering skin, every hair standing on end from the chill. He pulled on the flannel pajamas – red and black plaid, no less – and wasn't surprised when the shirt hung almost down to his knees and there were quite a few inches of spare length on the pants. He was, essentially, a midget in a giant's winter pajamas. Quite soft and warm, though. Not that it kept the haunting chill in his chest at bay.

He limped out of the room, Axel standing right outside as he had said, flashing a gentle smile as the dry blond emerged, with the exception of slightly damp hair. The redhead slipped back into his bedroom and returned with his comforter draped about him. Roxas fell into his embrace, the two cocooned in the blanket. Roxas leaned against Axel, energy utterly spent, and was only able to let out a weak, dry sob. The redhead held Roxas until the shivers died down and were replaced with waves of heat.

"You okay, Roxas?" Axel asked the blond in his arms carefully after a moment, thumbs rubbing small circles into the small of his back. He received a shake of a head.

"My knee," he replied softly, "It got kind of got fucked over on my way here."

Axel hummed softly in question and held Roxas at arms' length, "Let's see what Doctor Axel has to say." If Roxas hadn't been floundering in his own emotions, he would have made some kind of comment about how freakishly scary that statement was. He was vaguely reminded of his previous mental image of the redhead in a scandalous nursing uniform - high heels and all - which almost brought a smile to his lips. Almost.

He was set on a high stool from the counter in the kitchen. A mischievous smile was thrown at him before the redhead's attention was focused elsewhere. It was awkward to have Axel kneeling at that particular level, to say the least. A rather out of place chuckle bubbled up from the redhead.

"Yep, they are just a bit too big for you." His ankle was taken by gentle hands and thus began the slow process of peeling up the pant leg. Roxas cursed internally as long fingers crept along his calf, both at the shock of the caress and the fact that he didn't want to admit to _anyone_ that he shaved his legs almost religiously. Not that the latter was much of a bad thing at this point.

"They would be. I'm not a giant like you," Roxas muttered, his mind quite distracted by the redhead's attention and his _oh shit_ kissing the starkly white skin just beside his kneecap. And then the blond became aware of a rather important fact rather suddenly, "Axel, it's my other knee."

He replied with a low hum, a smirk, and a purred, "Silly me," before pressing one last kiss to the side of his leg before moving to the actually injured one, pulling up the pant leg in the same way as the first, fingers dragging along the backside of his knee, drawing a hitching breath at the tingling sensation from Roxas. An impressed whistle came next as the rather colorful bruise was revealed ever so timidly. His calf was cupped in a warm hand and lips were pressed to the very edge of the bruise, bringing a mixture of pain and pleasure.

Axel sighed, the warm breath flowing over the blond's skin ever so enticingly, "No broken skin, that's a good sign, and there isn't that much swelling. You want some painkillers?"

Blue eyes were adverted, "It'd help." Why did it feel like he had just gotten a frigging hand job on his frigging legs? Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him again. The redhead was gone and soon replaced by a glass of water and some heaven-made pills, which were quickly gulped down. Green eyes melted into blue once again.

"You want to talk about it?" Axel inquired carefully, hovering before Roxas with a protective air.

Roxas smiled bitterly, "I ran away before they could respond. What else is there to say?"

Green eyes softened, "You were defending me."

"I had to," blue adverted again, "They were defaming you in every way possible and I couldn't just-"

Axel pressed a kiss to his lips to still the ramble of explanation that threatened to continue on, "Thanks, Rox."

A flush overcame Roxas, "I should've stayed and yelled at them some more."

Axel smiled softly, "No, you did good, Roxas."

Roxas pinched the bridge of his nose, "God, but it was so horrible." It _still_ was horrible.

"Yeah, but you didn't get booted out of your house. That's always a good sign, right?"

The blond withdrew slightly, "Sorry. I didn't think- I mean, I don't have it nearly as bad as-" Roxas was tugged back by the redhead.

A smile was flashed at him, "Like you said before: you're not me. Now, are you okay to stand or do I have to carry you, my little injured boy?"

Roxas pouted, but threw his arms about Axel's neck, "I'm not that much younger than you, dumbass."

Axel shrugged, his own arms weaving around the blond's middle and drawing closer, "At least I tried, right?"

"Shut up, Axel," he crushed his lips to the redhead's and was accepted immediately. They fell into their usual rhythm, light and passionate, but the blond desired more of Axel at that moment. Legs were wound about the slim waist, eliciting a deep sound from the back of the redhead's throat, doubling as Roxas all but fell off of the stool into his arms, forcing Axel to arc backwards to keep the blond from slipping from his grasp.

Roxas pressed on, needy tongue exploring the complying redhead's mouth, fingers tangled in the red spikes. His mind was a blur of desire, sparks of light dancing across his closed eyelids, overcome by the pure sensation of the redhead so close – his heart thundering beside another, sharing the same heightened heat.

So engrossed in the heady engagement, Roxas didn't notice the redhead carry him out of the kitchen and only realized that they were in the living room when Axel set him on the overstuffed couch. Or at least tried to. He let out a distressed noise and refused to release the redhead from his full-body death lock, whereupon Axel changed strategies. He seated himself upon the cushion, gaining a noise of approval from the blond, who continued on with the airy and heated friction of their mouths, now straddling the redhead properly.

Axel was aptly receptive to this and brought out a hungry growl from the blond as his fingers kneaded the soft skin of his lower back through the fleece pajamas. Said action provoked the monster of lust that dwelled deep within him. Hands unwound from red spikes and trailed down Axel's chest, fingertips memorizing every dip and curve of the toned torso. And suddenly he wanted much more than just the flimsy tee-shirt beneath his needy palms.

Hips were rolled artlessly, hands diving under the offensive material, and mouths parted for air. Axel pulled in a strained breath, one hand leaving the other's back in favor of stilling a wandering palm, "Rox, slow down a bit."

Slightly irritable at having been restrained, the blond growled at Axel, "Why?" He rolled his hips a second time, more precise and earned a hiss from the redhead.

Axel's next words were ground out between hitched breaths, "Roxas, I don't want to take advantage of your emotional state."

Blue turned on cloudy green, "Who said I'm in an emotional state?" It came out a bit sharper than he had planned.

Axel sucked in a lungful of air, hand fisting in the black and red flannel against Roxas's back, "You're confused about your friends. You don't want to do this, Rox."

"Of course I want-"

"You want to be needed," this caught the blond, and some blood returned to his head from a more southern region. Axel continued, "I know, Roxas, and you _are_. Damn it, you _know_ you are. I went through the same thing and I don't want you to make the same mistakes that I did."

"This isn't a mistake, Axel," Roxas growled, but withdrew his palms from underneath the redhead's shirt.

"Roxas," his name was stated sternly, coming out of his Roxas-induced haze. Apparently, the blond wasn't the only one with blood returning to the other parts of his body, "You haven't even known me for a week and you're trying to force your way into my pants. How is that not a mistake?"

"You've been stalking me since high school, Axel. You obviously want _something_."

"This isn't about me, Rox," the redhead ground out, "You hardly know who I am."

"So tell me, Axel. Who are you?" The blond narrowed his eyes, "What kind of mistakes did _you_ make?"

Axel visibly winced, "Besides losing my virginity to a complete stranger I found in a club right after I came out to my parents? Let's not get into that right now." Crystal eyes drifted away, focusing on everything and nothing, his mind strangely blank. He settled back on Axel's knees, feeling oddly empty and spent after the heat of the moment. He was brought from his pensive stupor by large hands cupping his shoulders, "We'll get through this, but drowning yourself like that won't make it any easier."

Blue flicked up to green, "Voice of experience?"

A guilty smile was flashed, "Unfortunately. But I was quick to learn and I'm passing my knowledge on to you, if you would accept it."

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Axel, you dipwad." But he couldn't stop the weak smirk that crossed his kiss-swollen lips. And that was when reality came to smack him upside the head. A very familiar muffled tune was coming from Axel's bedroom where Roxas had dumped his sopping clothes.

His friends were calling.

The blond groaned, pressing his forehead to the broad shoulder before him, "Can the world just combust and die already?"

Roxas's headrest shook slightly with Axel's silent laughter, "Sometimes I wished it would. But then you became my world." A kiss was planted on the blond's neck and his middle was lightly constricted once again.

Roxas smirked, "Axel, you're such a sap."

The redhead hummed, "Yes, but I'm _your_ sap."

"No, you're my fag," Roxas grinned.

"And you're my boyfriend," Axel pointed out, prodding the blond in the side with a finger.

"Not your friend?" Smiling blue met equally satisfied green.

"Of course my friend. It just has a 'boy' attached to the front. Unless you want me to call you my fagfriend, but that just implies that you're gay, not that we are going out." Their foreheads met together lightly.

"You're insane, Axel, but I think you'd make a good boyfriend."

"Good to know," Axel replied just as a single muffled beep chirped from Roxas's cell phone, signifying the end of a message, "You going to get that?"

The blond brow was furrowed, "No. I've had enough drama for one day."

"No thanks to me, huh? Hey," Axel jiggled his knee, jarring Roxas just slightly, "You want to have that sleepover we were talking about before? I'll make you pancakes in the morning."

Roxas allowed himself a small smile, "It's better than going home. Besides, Hayner Pence and Olette still have my house key."

"Would they break in to your house and force you to explain yourself?" It was meant to be a joke, but the tone of seriousness was not hard to discern.

"It wouldn't be the first time. Better play it safe. We using your bed?"

At that, Axel snorted, "After that little display? I'm not sure I could trust you to sleep in the same _room_ as me after that. No, you're sleeping on the _couch_." Roxas was whipped around and set on said comfy furniture, the redhead's face still quite close.

Roxas gained a cocky smirk, "But you only have one blanket."

Axel faltered, "You've got a point there."

"And you can't let your boyfriend freeze his ass off all night, especially when he has just so recently been in the fucking cold rain," he pointed out. "And you don't want to be responsible for getting me sick for the second time in two weeks."

"You're making this too hard, Rox," Axel whined.

Crystal eyes were rolled, "Axel, I swear on my banana sundae pajamas that I won't molest you sometime in the middle of the night. As if I really could, after your ultimate cock-blocker speech."

A brilliant grin spread across Axel's face, "Works for me, Señorita Banana Pants."

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**End Notes: **Dawww, so cuuuute, right? Sorry 'bout the angst, but it was kinda necessary. It was Roxas's fault! I swear, he's worse than Zexion with the whole emo thing. But you gotta love his steamy mood swings. Makes for nice make-out scenes. And I'll be going to Costa Rica in a few days for spring break, so don't be expecting the next chapter for something like two weeks since I won't have access to a computer for a while. Just be glad there isn't another cliffhanger!


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: Costa Rica was frigging amazing and this week has been hectic and crap

**Author's Note: **Costa Rica was frigging amazing and this week has been hectic and crap. So sorry about the elongated wait!

**Disclaimer: **Damn it, I still don't own it.

**Other Junk: **My brother and his girlfriend are playing KH2 and they just met Axel for the first time. I was very squeeful. Oh, and **I made a poll** for you, my darling readers. Just curious! It's on the top of my profile page for you peeps to use. So go and vote (once you finish reading, that is)!

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Chapter 21

Roxas woke and found the ceiling to be quite different from what he was used to seeing - the early morning sun splaying across the white surface at a slightly different angle than in his own room. It was only a matter of time before he came to realize exactly what predicament he had wound up in. Needless to say, it was a rather awkward one. Especially seeing that a hand other than his own was resting on his stomach, precariously close to his bellybutton. Which was rather exposed due to the fact that his shirt had ridden up sometime during the night. The night… when Axel had stayed awake, whispering sweet somethings – not nothings, mind you – into Roxas's ear. No, they were not nothings. Nothing Axel said could ever be a nothing. To those murmured somethings, he had fallen asleep.

He was vaguely reminded of a certain dream that had led him to believe that he would wake to the redhead beside him and, needless to say, his heart suffered a series of attacks in quick succession. Then he realized that his pants were, in fact, still on. But regardless, it was about time to leave.

As much as Roxas had wanted to be close to Axel the previous night, he was all but thrilled to shove the arm away that had gone wandering in the redhead's sleep – he hoped he was asleep, at least – and leave the peacefully sleeping man in favor of channel-surfing. At least he tried. It was a valiant effort, but quite ineffective. As soon as he moved, the sleeping Axel clutched the blond closer, affectively ensnaring him for the time being.

Which gave the perfect opportunity to experiment. Or at least it seemed like it at the time. Screw the dream. He felt like being a mischievous sneak. Moving at the speed of a sloth with an anti-caffeine shot, Roxas inched closer to the redhead, gaze intent on the slumbering expression before him. But only up until that expression shifted ever so slightly. Roxas froze a moment too late and the unconscious redhead accommodated for Roxas's most recent move by spooning his side. The expression relaxed once more, now quite a bit closer to the wide awake blue eyes. Oh _shit_, what did he just get himself into?

Never mind. Screw the experiment. This was getting dangerous. That was when Roxas began his snail-speed withdrawal, only pausing when the red eyebrows furrowed at the not so sudden loss of a warm not-teddy bear. It took about an hour of Roxas-time to get out of the hairy situation – more like fifteen minutes to any other person – and make his way to the couch, where he settled on watching dorky television shows.

It was about a real not-Roxas hour of waiting before he heard a few sluggish thumps from the other room, signifying Axel's waking. It was only a matter of moments before said pajama-clad redhead stumbled into the room. The peaceful expression he had adorned was lost to squinting at the evil sun that shouldn't have been up at that ungodly hour.

"Good morning, beautiful," Roxas droned out over the top of the couch, an eyebrow raised at Axel's horrid bead-head hair.

Axel stopped in his groggy steps that were supposedly heading towards Roxas and stared. It took him a moment to wake up enough to question, "What'd I do to get that nickname?" Better question: what hadn't he done?

Roxas rolled his eyes, "You don't like to keep to yourself while you're sleeping." Like hell he was going to admit that he halfway provoked it.

This caught Axel and suddenly he wasn't quite as asleep as he had been, "Shit, what'd I do?"

Roxas turned back to the TV, quietly playing on before him, and acted as though it was the main focus of his entire being at that moment, "Nothing worth mentioning." A needy grumble came from his stomach as Full House played on the crappy television, "You got those pancakes ready? I'm freaking starving."

Axel disregarded the question and continued on with the more pressing matter, "You sure I didn't give you, like, a hand job or something?" Now, that did seem have a more significant air to it than the TV show playing.

The blond turned away from the screen and gave a suspicious glare at the redhead, "Are you prone to giving people hand jobs in your sleep?"

The redhead stalled, seeing himself caught in a corner, "No! God, no. Rox, you're making it seem like I'm in the habit of molesting everyone I come across." What a nice way to start out the morning, no?

Blue eyes narrowed over the top of the couch, "Are you?"

"Of course not!" He let out a groan and wiped a hand down the front of his face, "It's too early to be having this conversation."

"Axel, it's almost noon." Always the voice of reason. Not.

Green locked to blue, "Yeah, but that's like, eight in the morning for me."

The pair fell to silence, Roxas slipping his gaze away and back to the television screen without hearing the soft noise emanating from the box.

Roxas finally pried his mind away from his swarming thoughts, eyes locked to the screen and yet blind to it, "Axel?" There was an awkward pause and he took it to mean that the redhead was listening. Or asleep. Either would have worked, "Why did you choose me?"

"For what?" Awake. Damn.

The blond swallowed before answering, "For your whole stalkerish obsession… thing, if that's what it was. In any case, there must be plenty more people out there who are far more qualified to be your boyfriend. Why wasn't it someone else, like Demyx?"

Axel gave an incredulous cough, "Dem? You think I would go after my best friend instead of you? Would you go after jerk-face? Rox, where is this coming from?"

Roxas turned his head, but kept his gaze carefully adverted and mumbled in response, "I don't know. You're just so- so you. I'm practically a grey stiff in comparison." Or maybe he had just discovered how perfect the redhead was and how imperfect he himself was while standing in his shadow.

A sigh unfolded from behind the blond and a few short strides brought the redhead to stand before him. Quite suddenly, Roxas's down turned gaze was filled with a heck of a lot of bright Christmas colors and the quiet and sincere voice rumbled on, "Roxas, you're not going to dissuade me from my feelings just to make it easier to come out to your friends. Is that what you're trying to do?"

Roxas let out a distressed moan, giving his face a rough rub, "I don't know. I just can't deal with life right now."

"Well, good thing I'm here, then." A hand rested on his uninjured knee, "We'll get through this, Rox. You've already done the big part, now you just have to work through 'till the end." Voice of experience talking once again.

"Sure." Crystal eyes turned downcast. He was drawn to the chest before him, wrapped in a hug, to which he complied and hugged back. He clung to the pajama shirt, arms tightening. Their moment was broken by another needy grumble from the blond's stomach. "You going to make those pancakes now?" The question was mumbled into a polyester-covered shoulder – not adorned with campfires, sadly.

The reassuring embrace was withdrawn and replaced by a grinning Axel, "Only if you help."

The next hour was taken up by a mad scramble for various ingredients in the tiny kitchen – after shoving Roxas's clothes in the dryer, of course, while the blond borrowed some of Axel's clothes. After an almost full-on flour war and a catastrophe involving Axel's love for large flames, which resulted in the burning of about half of the pancakes, Roxas took over the flipping. Which was when Axel made the discovery that he didn't have any maple syrup. It was decided that some sort of syrup was required and thus, the two set out for the store. All worries were forgotten for the time being, replaced by mirth and joy.

000

"So how did your brother come out?" They were walking, the plastic bag containing the required maple syrup and extra powdered sugar swinging nonchalantly from Roxas's hand. They had walked the entire way to the store and were currently on their way back to his house to complete their brunch.

"Sora?" Damn, why was it still so painful to utter his twin's name? "He never really did. I mean, he and Riku had been best friends since they were little, and they were able to keep their relationship private."

Red eyebrows were raised, "Even from you?"

Roxas let out a snort, "Like Sora could ever keep anything from me. I was forced to sit through him reciting his sappy poetry, which was torture. That and all the minute details of what they did, not that it was much." He stole a glance up at Axel, who was having a very hard time of keeping a straight face. Roxas scowled at him, "Don't you dare say it. I can see that dirty thought, don't you _dare_."

The grin broke through, "What?" Like hell he was as innocent as he tried to make himself appear.

Blue eyes were rolled, "Axel, you are impossible. Go on, say it. I'll brace myself."

"I'm trying to figure out the definition of torture in your context." He shot a sly glance down at Roxas, who let out a cough.

"Axel, you are _such_ a pervert." The grocery bag was swung around and hit the redhead in the stomach. Rather nicely toned and delicious to the touch with-

"Says the one who molested me last night," the smirk only grew.

Roxas grimaced, "Shit, I guess you got me with that one. And to answer your inquiry, no, it was not torture in that sense. I had always considered myself asexual and it was torture in the boring, dragging on sense, thank you very much." This earned him a doubtful snort from Axel, who was promptly elbowed in the gut. "Shut up, Ax."

They continued on for a half of a block before the redhead continued with the previous conversation, "So, what did your parents say?"

Roxas sobered instantly, a small smile working its way onto his cheeks as he spoke, "They practically told Sora that he was gay. He was quite naïve, really. But they were fine with it."

"Do your friends know?" Came next, the question sincere.

Blond spikes swayed from side to side, "Sora made me promise not to tell anyone and I never really got around to it after the accident. So this whole gay friend thing is pretty new to them." An arm found its way around his shoulder and a kiss was pressed into the blond locks. A smile stole across Roxas's face, "What's that for?"

"Do I really need a reason?" There was that adoration again, paired with the circling thumb on his shoulder.

Roxas could feel the flush rush to his cheeks, "I guess not." The arm stiffened and blue shifted upwards, to find that a steeled expression had come over Axel. "What?"

His tone was tense, "If they didn't believe you before, they do now."

"_What_?" Roxas whipped around in the general direction of Axel's icy glare and found his best friend up until the night before staring back from across the street with just as much surprise. They locked eyes for a brief moment, Roxas freezing in his tracks and the arm tightening about him protectively. "Axel, we're leaving. _Now_." The contact between the two blonds was broken and Roxas pressed forward.

Hayner called out his name and it was met by deaf ears. Roxas kept his eyes determinedly on the pavement before him, intent on simply walking away, no longer held by Axel's secure half-embrace. But his plan was thwarted when they were intercepted. Hayner stopped the pair in their tracks, standing securely in the middle of the walkway. He took a step towards them, a sentence lost upon his lips. It didn't help that Axel decided to step between the two blonds and play the protective boyfriend.

His voice was just as acidic as his glare, "You lay a finger on him and I swear-"

Hayner was taken slightly aback, "What the hell? I'm not going to beat up my best friend." Axel didn't seem persuaded, but the blond pushed past the redhead-barrier to confront his best friend. Hayner continued, "Roxas, why didn't you tell us before?"

Roxas shifted uncomfortably, feeling quite exposed to the world, "Do we have to discuss this _here_?"

"You weren't answering your phone." Well, Hayner did have a point with that one.

Axel sliced in, eyes mere slits, "And for good reason, t-"

He was stopped by a soft hand falling to his clenched fist and a soft calming whisper, "Axel, chill." Roxas turned back to Hayner, "I didn't tell you because I didn't know."

Hayner gave a wary glance towards the ever-ready to attack Axel before shoving on his cocky grin, "Fair enough. Well, I'll be the messenger for the whole group and say that we're not kicking your ass out. Because that'd be a fucking douche thing to do." Good to see they thought the same as Roxas. He continued, "So since there's been a vacancy since last night, I'd like to offer you the position of my best friend." He took a step forward, undeterred by the menacing Axel, and held his hand out for the blond to clasp in their usual Hollywood handshake, "I hope I haven't been replaced just yet." What the hell do you say to that?

Roxas stared with wide eyes. How had that been so easy? It was a set up. There were some cameras hidden in the bush to the right… right? Where was the cold shoulder? The rejection? His feet took him the final few steps to stand before Hayner. A smile pried its way onto his face and he clapped their hands together, "Not replaced quite yet."

His best friend gave his usual smirk, the familiar challenging chocolate brown eyes staring into brightening blue. Their friendship hadn't dulled and still blazed on as it once had before the call for education had broken them. It was settled. Roxas's thundering and constricted heart was put to ease with his best friend's hand clasped against his own, old calluses from the Struggle tournaments pressed together. Still the same hand, still the same memories. Still his best friend.

Hayner flicked his gaze to Axel, letting his hand fall away from Roxas's, cocky grin still running rabid, "Olette was pretty disappointed to find that her most recent crush just so happens to be gay for one of her best friends."

Roxas twitched slightly, "One of the things that you were insulting him about, I might add." Here he was, defending his boyfriend again, the slight edge working its way back into his voice.

Hayner winced in return, "Yeah, I really was just making that crap up."

Axel narrowed his eyes further and growled at the taller blond, "And what was 'that crap' about, exactly?" The redhead could be quite intimidating at times, and he was using that ability to the fullest extent at that moment, stepping up to stand protectively behind Roxas.

Even Hayner had to glance upwards just a bit to meet those seething eyes, "Um, it was all in fun. I was expecting Roxas to jump in to keep 'Lette from crushing on you, but it sort of backfired." Sort of. Yeah, right. "And I think I should be heading back to- whatever I was doing. Over there." He motioned blindly across the street before dashing off in that general direction. He paused just before crossing the street and turned back to the pair, each following his every move, the redhead having rested his hand once more on the blond's shoulder, "Hey Roxas, you should call Pence and Olette. They've been worried sick about you."

Roxas mentally kicked himself out of his stupor, "S-sure thing, Hayner."

Axel continued his glare, "I still don't trust him." Hayner disappeared around the corner of a store.

"But he's still my best friend." Roxas turned and beamed up at the skeptical redhead.

He got a disbelieving stare, red brows knitted, "He made you fucking cry, and I'm not about to get over that soon. And he insulted me in ways that I don't even know about."

Roxas shook his head, "But he's still my best friend. Hayner was just being his usual self. He just happened to be being himself at the wrong time, towards the wrong person." The smile grew on the blond as he fully came to realized what had just come to pass, "He's still my best friend, Axel." It felt amazing to say.

The acrimony melted away, but a touch of bitterness remained in the redhead, "Well, since that spot is obviously taken, I suppose I get booted down to lowly boyfriend status."

Roxas's grin widened. The heavy weight he had carried for who knows how long had lifted from his shoulders and he felt fucking _fantastic_. He shouldered Axel lightly, "It's not as lowly as you think."

* * *

**End Notes: **I'm thinking one more chapter will finish this baby up, but I could be wrong. Might not be up in 3 days' time due to school kicking my ass, but it won't be another three weeks, that's for sure. **Don't forget to vote in the poll on my profile page!** Huzzah!


	22. Chapter 22

**EDIT:** To all you peeps who come back to re-read this chapter or whoever else, the lemon scene has been EXTENDED. Because I thought it needed a bit more to it. ENJOY!!

**Author's Note:** Well, this is it! Thank you to all of my readers who stuck with me this far, you guys rock! 22 chapters all inspired by a stupid little freshman blowing his nose in the hallway at school, whoda thunk?

**Disclaimer: **I don't own these freaks. I never will. I just own this story.

**WARNING: **Yeah, you get your lemon. LEMON, I SAY!! Well, it's more like lemonade, but whatever. I am not responsible for the loss of innocence.

**Other Junk: **Yeah, still talking here. I just want to say that this chapter has been haunting me for the past two weeks. Like, the scenes would pop up randomly while I was eating dinner or in class or something and I was like "OH MY GOD, stop it, stupid brain!" And yeah. Enjoy, because I did.

-- --

Chapter 22

--

Two months and some weeks later.

--

A bright orange duffel bag slapped lazily across Roxas's back as he continued on his way down the block, trying to rid his brain of the endless facts that he had been studying for his final exams for the previous two weeks straight. His black and white checkered sneakers – one of the wonderful birthday presents from his true love – slapped the uneven sidewalk, the blond hitching the bag more securely over his shoulder as he approached the paint-peeling and barred door. He pushed right through, thankful that he caught it when it was still open, seeing that it was quickly approaching nightfall, not thinking twice about ringing up his boyfriend. Axel knew he was coming. They had come to a kind of deal that whenever they were free, they would crash the other's house.

Roxas trudged his way up the bubbling painted stair case, footsteps echoing around the bleak and oddly shaped hallway – if you could even call it that – his body on auto-pilot for the most part. He tapped out a random series of knocks on the scorched door – not nearly as catchy as the redhead's, but it got the job done.

The door opened after a few moments to a brilliant and warming grin, "Hello, Roxie."

The blond responded with an easy, "Hey, Ax." He pressed through the door before they fell into a casual, lingering kiss. The door was closed and their lips separated.

"Finals over, hm?" Axel asked lightly.

Roxas groaned in relief, dropping his bag to the floor heavily before leaning his forehead into the chest of his boyfriend, "God, _finally_. That last one practically killed all of the living neurons in my head and it didn't help that it got changed to five. I barely had time to stuff my face with dinner. But seriously, if I have to study anything else, I think my brains will combust."

"Did our study session come in handy?"

Roxas chuckled, "You mean the one where you almost blew up my back yard with those bootleg fireworks? I honestly don't think we achieved much studying that night." Indeed, after the whole 'OH MY GOD, the grass is on _FIRE_' thing, the couple opted to have a de-stressing movie marathon. With much cuddling. "You still need to get me some lawn fertilizer for that, you know."

The redhead shrugged as Roxas stood away, "What's the bag for?"

Blue eyes found the blinding duffel bag and returned to Axel, rather sheepishly, but with a winning smile, "Mind if I spend the night?"

This earned him a rather amused smirk, "What, your friends planning on ambushing you tonight?"

Roxas snorted, "Like they would be able to concoct a realistic plan without my help. No, they won't be home for a few more days, so we have time to make our own scheme."

"Speaking of your friends, are they okay with us now?" Axel's light-hearted tone was subdued and replaced by a more pensive air.

"You kidding? Olette has been all up in my ass about sending fucking _couple_ pictures of us." Eye roll on the 'couple' part.

Axel didn't look completely convinced, "And jerk face?"

Roxas winced, "Hayner? He hasn't really said much concerning us. Nothing, actually. I expect we'll have a little blow up on the issue, but I think he'll see it our way eventually."

"Our way or the highway," Axel threw out, before clasping Roxas's shoulders gently, "You going to be okay?"

A wicked grin crossed the blond's face, "I can throw a mean punch."

Trimmed red eyebrows rose, "My sweet, innocent little Roxie?"

"Yeah, let me practice on your head." Blue eyes narrowed mischievously.

"I'd prefer not to. And why the hell are we still standing by the door?" Roxas was constricted by the redhead's arms and crushed up against his chest. His feet lost contact with the ground and suddenly, his back was dropped onto the overstuffed couch, where he bounced a little before Axel practically landed on top of him – or more _hovered_ over him, seeing as the redhead was on his hands and knees. Their faces were mere inches apart, the smirk not leaving the redhead's lips, "That's better."

"Much," Roxas almost purred, leaning in for an open-mouthed kiss. Blue eyes shut and he leaned forward… and kept on leaning forward… and forward… and forward still. Blue eyes snapped open to find a rather large smirk on the face before him, still at the same distance as before. Roxas gave a scowl-pout and let his head fall back against the cushion. "Axel, what gives? Your supply isn't meeting my demand. I'm having a _shortage_ here."

Axel laughed at his pouting boyfriend, "You're talking economics again, Roxie."

"I've been studying it for the past two weeks, what do you expect?"

"I thought you didn't _want_ to make out when there was nothing to do." There was that damned evil glint of laughter in those green eyes. Axel wasn't making this as easy as Roxas had thought. Or maybe it was all in his head.

"Then what do _you_ propose we do, mister host?" Roxas crossed his arms over his chest and looked expectantly up at the face hovering ever so enticingly over him.

"What people always do at sleepovers: watch movies!" Oh, he was _such_ a fucking tease.

Roxas gave Axel a shove and crawled off of the couch, "You pick out the movie, then. I'm going to get my pajamas."

The smirk morphed into a soft smile, "Sounds good to me, Roxie." The blond couldn't help but succumb to the contagious grin.

Regardless of Roxas's desires of simply sucking face, watching a movie was exactly what the pair ended up doing. The blond curled up beside his boyfriend with his head resting against the broad shoulder, Axel's arm wound around Roxas's waist in turn. It was agony for the blond, to just simply watch the movie and fucking _wait_. But he didn't want to seem too hasty, like he hadn't been thinking about it for the past who knows how many weeks.

Roxas barely registered the sequence of events playing on the tacky screen before them, his attention focused on the soft grip around his middle. It seemed like an eternity before the credits began inching their way up the screen.

The blond let out a breathy, "Finally," before whipping himself around to straddle the almost dozing redhead. Enchanting acidic green met deep blue.

A gentle smirk slowly worked its way onto Axel's face, "You didn't come over to watch movies, did you?"

Roxas settled himself on Axel's lap, arms falling about the redhead's neck and fingers tangling in the wild spikes. His eyes lowered and he let out a purring, "No," drawing closer to his boyfriend.

Hands were teased along his sides, "I was wondering when you'd snap."

"It's almost been three fucking months, Ax. Plus, I was waiting for finals to be over. There's no way I would have been able to concentrate if-" Roxas's sentence was smothered by the redhead's mouth. It was a simple 'don't finish that thought' kiss.

"I get the point," Axel rumbled, his own eyelids lowering seductively.

"Don't be an ass cock-blocker this time."

"Gladly."

Their lips met, as they had countless times before, sweet and spice mingling once again in a perfect medley. Axel didn't hesitate to allow his palms to wander beneath the pajama shirt and just under the elastic of the pants. Green eyes opened and he grinned in amusement, breaking off of the kiss, much to the distress of a certain blond.

"No boxers? Where has my innocent Roxie gone?" The look was wiped off of the redhead's face when Roxas rolled his hips forward.

"I never wear boxers with these," the blond replied simply.

Axel let out a hiss, "That's fucking _hot_." Their mouths met once more, and were broken as Roxas pulled in a gasp as his boyfriend's hands groped his rear, fingers enticing on his skin.

Their chests were suddenly crushed against one another, both pairs of arms clasping about them. Axel stood, Roxas automatically hooking his legs about his waist, mouth working at the soft skin behind the redhead's ear. The next thing he knew, his back was being bounced against a piece of furniture for the second time that night, though this was distinctly a mattress. And there was Axel, hovering over him as he had before, a hungry smirk plastered to his face.

Axel then began to pay lavish attention to Roxas's neck and jaw. When the needy fingers started to unbutton the sundae pajama top, the lips followed his downward progress. Precious white skin was slowly revealed, not an inch missed by the redhead, who was simply drinking in the sight. He pressed wet kisses and licks to certain points of interest, eliciting a strangled moan from the blond, who squirmed as the redhead ignored a very potent problem in his pants.

Roxas let out needy grunts and noises, which drew an amused glance from Axel as he saw cloudy and pleading blue eyes staring back. The kisses trailed southward, and the last was brushed at the very peak of the problematic mountain. Roxas's hips bucked up automatically, but were caught and pressed back down to the comforter.

Axel let out a breathy laugh, "Woah, Rox. You're going to put an eye out."

"Then _do_ something about it," came the half-growl, half-moaned response.

"A little demanding, are we?" What would have been a joking comment turned into a cock-teasing ear-caressing taunt.

Roxas let out a groan, trying to squirm out of the redhead's hold on his hip, "Axel…" He was rewarded by the long drag of an enticing tongue where the kiss had been brushed before. The redhead sat up then, hands moving to the bottom hem of his own shirt in order to sweep it off. Needless to say, he was stopped as Roxas sat up to meet him before an inch of skin was revealed.

"Let me," Roxas purred, his hands replacing those of the redhead, moving under the material and working their way up his chest ever so slowly. The flawless skin was revealed as the shirt was peeled away, the blond's lips moving against Axel's jaw as he worked, only to depart to find the first revealed nipple. The chest expanded beneath his working tongue as Axel took in a hissing breath, the redhead not hesitating to aid Roxas in shoving his shirt off of his head, tossing it to the floor as the blond continued his gentle hand and tongue caresses.

"Your turn," Axel growled, pulling Roxas's shirt off of his shoulders. The blond completed the job, and the shirt joined the first. Bare chests connected, lips parting in way of dancing tongues. Hands worked at Axel's pants and the fly was undone. Roxas's back was lowered to the mattress once more, the only article of clothing between them now were the infamous banana pants.

Axel's hand wound down Roxas's chest, drawing a pleading moan from the blond as it continued lower, only to draw just short of the elastic. Blue, lust-clouded eyes snapped open to find clear green. The sincere look caught him.

"Roxas, admit to me one thing. Just answer," a grin broke out, "Are we friends yet?"

The blond let out a huff and pressed a quick kiss to his lover's lips, "Of course, dumbass. You're my boyfriend and I love you to fucking Hell, so will you please just get on with it already?" He paused before adding, "And I'm not just saying that, Axel. I- I really do." And he felt it, with every fiber of his being. It was reflected in the adoring green eyes above him.

His words caressed the very air, "I love you too, Roxas."

The hand plunged and set to work and it felt fucking _amazing_, the fingers expertly touching in every way. Their tongues were doing the tango amongst the gasping and whimpers of pleasure from the blond. As suddenly as it began, the hand moved on to uncharted territory and a finger was pressed in.

Roxas let out a hum, unsure of whether to feel surprised, discomforted, or highly aroused by the intrusion; his brow furrowed and his mouth was released.

"This alright, Roxas?" Came the gentle question. He received a shaky nod and Axel pressed in further, "Just relax."

"How can I relax when you're sticking your fucking finger up my ass?" Roxas ground out. A second finger was gently pressed in.

"Feels weird, hm?"

"More like freakishly bizarre," Roxas replied truthfully, "But… It's okay."

"It'll get better," Axel was quick to promise. God, he hoped so. The adverted attention was killing him.

The intrusion was soon gone, as was the last article of clothing between them. And then-

"Oh shit, that's cold," Roxas tried to squirm, but was held in place.

"It'll reduce friction," Axel explained softly, fingers working at the cream.

Roxas growled, "I _want_ friction."

Laughing green met glaring blue, "Not down there, you don't."

Roxas's brain suddenly switched to the little talk they had had in their freshman year of high school, "S-shouldn't we be using some kind of prote-" His thought was cut off by a mouth closing around a quite sensitive area, sentence broken by a surprised gasp. The blond's head was thrown back, fingers digging into the comforter, and breathing labored.

The lips were removed and Roxas mourned their departure. Axel's response was simple, "I'm clean if you are." And no duh Roxas was. Axel had been – and was going to be – his first _everything_. There was a distinct pause from the redhead and Roxas cracked open an eye to find green wandering the length of his body, distinctly sober, drinking in every last precious inch of skin.

His voice was soft, "You're so beautiful, Roxas." Small arms wrapped around his neck, and brought their faces together.

The blond arced his body against Axel's, "You are too." They shared a kiss.

"You ready?" The redhead was sporting an animalistic grin. Roxas gave his own impatient and hungry expression in return.

"Have been for a while."

"Did I really need to ask?" Green eyes narrowed.

Oh my God, did he ever shut up? Hands clenched at the redhead's warm back, Roxas pressing his body closer and pleading, "Axel, just- just-"

He was silenced by a kiss, "I love you, Roxas." And then he _moved_. Damn, did he move. They worked together, grinding and just _moving_; the sparks of sensation better than anything either had felt before. Then there was a hand at Roxas's lower back and the blond arced forward to meet Axel. And then he was inside the blond. Roxas threw his head back, a gasp escaping his lips.

Axel let out a shaky breath against the precious white neck, "You okay, Rox?" He gave a shaky nod, and the redhead let out a low hiss, "Shit, you're tight."

It was so foreign, but it elicited so much pleasure that Roxas didn't care about the discomfort and the twinge of pain. They were still, all motions coming from their heavy breathing. And they still weren't moving.

Crystal eyes opened to lusting green, "Axel, I'm fine. Move," he dragged his fingers over the hot skin of his love's back, "Please _move_."

And he did. And damn if it wasn't the best sensation in the history of the world. Their hips ground together, moans splitting the suddenly thick air. Roxas arced and receded in unison with Axel's thrusting grinds, the pair falling into a heavy rhythmic pattern. The blond marveled at the redhead's body working against his own, skin on skin the most thrilling and exhilarating feeling. That and the wondrous friction building in intensity against his groin.

Roxas marveled at his lover's heavy, hot breaths against his neck, his own short and punctuated by gasps and moans. His hands wandered about the redhead's back, only daring to venture lower when Axel's own hand started to knead at his lower waist.

Lips were sloppily thrown together, arms becoming intertwined. Fingers were laced as they were pressed to the mattress above Roxas's head, the blond tangling their legs together and chests sliding against one another. A blue eye cracked open and was received by lustful green. Axel gave a loving smile, which was returned in all of its intensity.

Their movements became sloppy as they reached their climax, each drawing as much as they could from the other's body in the moments before, both in a sort of drunken stupor from the pure ecstasy of it all. Roxas came first, letting out a noiseless cry, followed shortly by Axel, who promptly fell on top of the exhausted blond, equally drained himself.

"Oh my God," the redhead breathed into Roxas's chest. There were no other words to describe it.

"Axel," the blond half groaned, half whispered, his own mind numbed by the explosion of sensation, "Axel, Axel, Axel…"

The redhead let out a breathy laugh, wrapping his arms securely about his love and rolling them both over so that Roxas was sprawled out on top of his chest, exhausted limbs still tangled together. The blond rested his forehead against Axel's shoulder and took in a few breaths, trying his best to still his trembling muscles. They held each other, sweaty and sticky, until the silence was broken by a quiet inquiry.

"You okay, Roxas?" It was whispered into mussed yellow spikes. It took the blond a moment to get his bearings before he lifted himself onto his elbows to get a better view of his love.

An exhausted smile crossed his lips, "Yeah." It was only then that the soreness decided to kick in. Roxas winced slightly and tried to shift into a position that wouldn't hurt his rather sensitive rear.

He was stopped in his shifting by lightly constricting arms, "If you stop moving, it won't hurt as much." Hazy blue met soft green, "You sure you're alright?"

Roxas put on a pained smile and nodded, adding, "I'll get used to it." He was drawn into a light kiss, the gentle touch lingering as they simply melted together.

"I think we could be good friends," Axel smirked, brushing his fingers through wild blond spikes.

An adoring grin was his response, "Well, we make good lovers. How about both?" Lips connected.

"I love you, Roxas."

"I know you do, dipwad." And Roxas knew it was shared equally between them.

--

They got a civil union two years later, on the anniversary of their meeting, where it all started. Hayner was Roxas's best man and Demyx was Axel's maid of honor.

Roxas went on to get a teaching degree in English and relished in the torturing of his own high school students with essays on odes. Axel got his master's degree in chemistry – combustive chemistry, as he put it – and made "gourmet fireworks" for some of the largest firework shows in the world. Needless to say, he snuck in one firework per show that read "ROXAS" with a red heart surrounding it. He perfected the technique after a few tries.

Roxas sold his family house and they got a fancy and spacious apartment, in which they splurged and added a deluxe video entertainment system with an entire wall of bookshelves dedicated to all of the movies that were absolutely essential to human existence. Axel was ever so gracious to bestow his wonderful sense of decorating on the whole place, complete with the red candles and lava lamp.

The couple made a point to have a box of sea salt ice cream in the freezer at all times.

They were friends first and foremost.

Lovers second and forever.

--THE END--

**End Notes: **And there you have it! What do you think, peeps? Good enough ending for you? If not, well… sucks for you!

Anywho, I swore that I wasn't going to start another story until after all of my exams were over, but I got another idea for another AkuRoku story. It'll be an afterlife fic, so it won't really be like this one… at all. So look for that in the coming weeks!

And I want to thank you all again for going through this with me and all that sentimental crap. THANKS GUYS!! Huggles to all.


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